A prática da documentação clínica ambulatorial sob a ótica de terapeutas ocupacionais

Abstract

The clinical documentation in occupational therapy is developed whenever the service is offered to a client to register and report information pertaining to care. The aim of the study is to identify how this is done and what the perception of occupational therapists about the practice of outpatient clinical documentation is. The research was conducted in two stages: documentary research, through qualitative research of legal documents in Brazil; and field research, descriptive and exploratory study, conducted with 104 active occupational therapists in the state of Sao Paulo who worked in outpatient services. This was carried out using an online questionnaire and data was analyzed using quantitative methods, descriptive statistics and specific tests for comparison and correlation of variables. The results of the field research show: 64.4% of the records are held only on paper; all respondents perform assessment records; one makes no record of intervention / monitoring; and 13.5% do not carry records of patient discharge. Also, 91.9% reported some level of satisfaction with their own record. Virtually all clinical documentation was considered to be necessary and useful. The results revealed a significant correlation (p <0.05) with the level of satisfaction with their own practice of clinical documentation the variables: considered have sufficient knowledge for the development of the records, and values attributed to the practice of clinical documentation (those who consider it complex or difficult present a lower level of satisfaction when compared to those who consider it simple or easy). As for documentary research, 123 documents of different organs of origin were selected and will be analyzed qualitatively, with 103 consisting of reports, technical notes or orders, and the rest, ordinances, resolutions, and Decree. Only 13 of them are specific to the occupational therapy. It was considered that the data obtained allowed an initial approach to the topic, identifying as clinical records are held by occupational therapists working in outpatient care and what their perception of this practice, and identify aspects that influence this perception. The documentary research helped to understand and contextualize the practice of clinical documentation in Brazil, especially in relation to occupational therapy. The study could also contribute to the identification of topics of interest for future research on the topic and to produce knowledge that can guide the development of better quality of clinical documentation by occupational therapists.