Annually, in the United States approximately 795,000 people sustain a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Stroke is also the primary preventable cause of long-term disability in the nation. Currently there are almost seven million survivors of stroke in the nation. This capstone project involved developing a four-hour continuing education course to examine occupational therapy (OT) interventions that are effective and feasible in various treatment settings, for clients who sustained a stroke and an upper extremity (UE) with hemiplegia or hemiparesis. The course was developed for novice and intermediate clinicians. It examined current OT practices, common medical complications, and appraised current research to determine which interventions are most effecitve in helping clients regain functional use of the affected UE and/or reduce the risk of injury or medical complications for the client. Due to the enormous amount of multidisciplinary research available on various interventions and time constraints; the course focused primarily on six interventions that could be realistically implemented in various treatment settings given the limitations of the environmental and organizational factors.
