The Role of Functional Capacity Evaluations in Occupational Therapy Vocational Evaluations

Abstract

One of the key objectives of vocational rehabilitation is to ensure that workers can perform their jobs safely, with a minimal risk for the work duties aggravating their medical problem, and with the medical problem having a minimal impact upon their work performance. Vocational evaluations can play an important role in vocational rehabilitation by determining an ill or injured worker's suitability for work. Functional capacity evaluations are a component of the vocational evaluation process, but are not comprehensive enough to address all the dynamic and complex factors that can influence an individual's work performance. The key component in any vocational evaluation is the clinical reasoning exercised by the occupational therapist, which is essential in producing credible conclusions and workplace recommendations from the information generated from an evaluation.