Application of Peak-End Rule in Occupational Therapy Program: Take A Hospital in Taiwan for Example

Abstract

Many patients undergo rehabilitative treatments in Taiwan each year According to the literature an occupational therapy program (OT program) may improve patients’ quality of life residential abilities and chance of returning to social life Patient satisfaction is an important index in benefit management of an OT treatment program Although most OT institutes perform common assessments which are post-intervention assessments they react passively to the results of these assessments Kahneman identified the peak-end rule which indicated that customers tend to judge past experiences by how they were at peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how they ended (Kahneman & Frederick 2002) If therapists provide good experiences at the end of the program it may improve the satisfaction and increase the willingness to participate of the patient The purpose of this study is applying the peak-end rule in occupational therapy program and checking its effects The research questions are: ??(1) Does the peak-end rule work in occupational therapy program? (2) What is the effect of peak-end rule applying in occupational therapy program? This study was implemented in one hospital in southern Taiwan The quantitative data were collected via self-evaluation questionnaires (Linkert 5-point scale) co-made by researcher and institute The participants went through two different kinds of intervention physical intervention and psychological intervention in one month Thirty participations were recruited in this study Additionally four clinical therapists were interviewed The data were analyzed by SPSS 12 0 statistics software Demographic data was analyzed by t test (?=0 05) The data which had been gathered from interview were analyzed by open coding secondary coding and axial coding The questionnaire data showed that the overall satisfaction of the OT program was improved Comparing with the baseline data the outcome of satisfaction in psychological intervention phase (P=0 04 <0 05) is greater than in the physical intervention phase (P=0 06 > 0 05) According to the interviews the participants felt that they had been better cared for and received more information in the psychological phase than in the original status This supports the results Most of the participants felt happy when they received the surgical mask at the end of the program However participants said if they could choose only one of them they preferred the psychological intervention more than the physical one Almost all the clinical therapists gave similar feedback One of the reasons is that compared with psychological intervention the physical intervention (surgical mask) is a low price product and seems lower "value" People easily become used to it the second or third time Another reason is that some of the participants seldom use surgical masks Although they were happy there was a weaker emotional connection in the feedback to the OT program

Date of Award	2016 Sept 9
Original language	English
Supervisor	Meng-Dar Shieh (Supervisor)