Five years later: achieving professional effectiveness to move neurorehabilitation forward

The AOTA Centennial Vision outlined in 2007 challenged the occupational therapy profession to become a "powerful, widely recognized, science-driven, and evidence-based" profession that could adapt to changing societal and cultural needs and flourish well into the future. That challenge can be met by simply being effective at what we do; this will increase our value and validate our worth. Neurorehabilitation in occupational therapy can also thrive if we verify that the interventions we use and the strategies we implement are grounded in evidence. Professional effectiveness will emerge by (1) increasing the dissemination of research that supports the methods we use and informs others of the successful patient outcomes we achieve and (2) expanding development and validation of instruments that quantitatively and qualitatively measure functional outcomes. Occupational therapists can individually develop professional effectiveness by fostering greater academic-clinical alliances, objectifying evaluation and intervention methods, and preparing future practitioners appropriately for evidence-driven practice.