Best occupational therapy books according to redditors
We found 43 Reddit comments discussing the best occupational therapy books. We ranked the 16 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 43 Reddit comments discussing the best occupational therapy books. We ranked the 16 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Kandel - Principles of neural science is the best by far, despite being just a little bit outdated on some areas (but so are all other textbooks in this field). Bears Neuroscience: Exploring the brain is a very easy read, goes down like yoghurt, but is far less comprehensive and not so in depth as Principles.
Eric Kandel's Principles of Neural Science is the classic textbook used by everyone. It's pretty dense and may be a little outdated but it's still among the best and most popular out there.
http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-Kandel/dp/0838577016
The principles of neural Science:
http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-Kandel/dp/0838577016
Great book all around. See if you can grab it used at a college at the end of a semester.
https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Reference-Occupational-Therapy-Kathlyn/dp/1416405453
OT Quick Reference is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
If you want the standard sequence of Neuroscience textbooks, there is a rough ordering of 3 common books. Each are very comprehensive and more than you would likely be able to read cover to cover, but they get more sophisticated and comprehensive as you go. The last one specifically is essentially the bible of neuroscience and you will be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive coverage of any of the topics outside a specialised textbooks or research papers.
These books will cover the general overview of neuroanatomy, physiology, pharmacology and pathology but if you want to go further in depth, there are more advanced books for each of those and dozens of other subfields.
I would specifically recommend Nolte - The human brain: an introduction to its functional anatomy as an exceptional example of a specialised text. Unfortunately, I do not recall the neurpharmacology text that I used, but it was very good too. I shall look it up and get back to you! For a more general introduction to pharmacology, the standard text is Rand and Dale - Pharmacology.
This is my go-to review on the subject, written by the man who won a Nobel prize on the subject: Eric Kandel.
He also literally wrote the book on neuroscience.
Also, microbiology is the study of bacteria, viruses and protozoa. The term you want is cellular and molecular biology.
you should read up into the organization of the visual cortex and temporal lobes - learning about the structure and function of the brain is very helpful in understanding why the psychedelic experience is the way it is. an excellent introductory book if you are interested in learning about neuroscience is Kandel's Principles of Neural Science.
http://www.amazon.ca/Principles-Neural-Science-Fourth-Edition/dp/0838577016
HarvardX has a Neuroscience series on Edx. Prof. David Cox (an amazing instructor) does a great job of explaining all the concepts. Prof. Cox loosely follows the roadmap of "Principles of Neuroscience" (Bible of Neuroscience) in teaching you all about neuro.
As others mentioned, Prof Idan Segev's lectures are also amazing. His course is terrific! A bit more on the mathematical side, but throughly enjoyble.
If you wanna get serious, then may start with "Principles of Neuroscience" ( It is Dense). Or if you wanna take it in a chill manner, I suggest you read "Phantoms in the Brain" (Ramachandran) and/or "In search of memory" (Eric Kandel).
Links:
Have fun!
kandel
bear
purves
martin
Each of these books is aimed at a different audience, but this should get you started.
I was in the exact same place as you near the end of my undergraduate years. I started college with the idea of getting an MD and joined a lab only to pad my application to medical school. After shadowing doctors, volunteering at free medical clinics, and working in two different research labs, I finally decided to do the PhD. I even went so far as to take both the MCAT and GRE. That turned out to be a good thing since I did well enough on the MCAT to teach MCAT prep for Kaplan and supplement my meager PhD stipend. Have you considered a combined MD/PhD program?
http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-Kandel/dp/0838577016
It's a bit out of date, but it's widely regarded as one of the best basic neuroscience textbooks out there. I keep hearing rumors of a new edition, but the release dates keep changing.
Depending on your level of skill and access, you could always check out new issues of the journals Neuron or Nature Neuroscience. It's a good idea to know a bit about what interests you so you can target your grad school applications.
This is how I understand the two most popular out there:
Principles of Neural Science (4th edition) has been the gold standard of neuroscience textbooks. It's been called the "bible" of neuroscience and a great jumping off point for anyone who wants to get a very technical and medical perspective on the various functions of the brain. The fifth edition is set to come out this October so I don't know if you'd want to wait or jump into this one but from what I understand this is the number 1.
http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-Kandel/dp/0838577016
The other textbook that is popular, that I've read most of, is Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (3rd edition). This textbook makes a lot of the topics that you'd like to learn about organized and easy to understand. While this book probably doesn't go into as much detail as Kandel's, it is a wonderful jumping off point to learn a lot of the basics about neuroscience and to get a solid understanding of a lot of mechanisms controlled by the brain. I highly suggest this one if you're new to neuroscience and not in medschool.
http://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-Exploring-Mark-F-Bear/dp/0781760038
Most of my sources are textbooks and wikipedia for a quick search... On my desk I have Molecular Biology of the Cell and Principles of Neural Science both of which are decent reference texts to have on your shelf. Beyond that, I think I can scrounge up a few good reviews on the subject if there's any interest, but this being Reddit, most people don't have access to papers behind paywalls...
I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Documentation-Manual-Occupational-Therapy-Writing/dp/163091231X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538741755&sr=1-1&keywords=soap+notes+occupational+therapy
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I still struggle with SOAP note writing but found this book to be a great resource and continue to learn from it. Good luck!
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Edit: Just want to add - don't be discouraged! Some things take longer than others to learn but it doesn't mean that you can't do it.
It all depends on what your intent is. Neuroscience is so broad and interdisciplinary that my recommendations depend largely on how much time and effort you plan to put into it. Are you trying to understand the brain so that you can go into research someday? Is neuroscience relevant to your separate field of research, and you just wanna get to know all the acronyms? Or are you just a curious layman who wants to understand the organ of understanding? In the latter two cases, many of the suggestions are very good; books by anyone from Ramachandran to Koch will suffice.
But if headed into neural research, you should really grab an introductory textbook that explains the principles of the brain (I recommend this one) and go through it, chapter by chapter, so you get the fundamentals down before you move onto deeper inquiries. If you have the money to spare, you should also pick up Principles of Neural Science as a reference book for more in-depth inquiries. The reason for this is that the Kandel book is really dense and somewhat poorly organized, which makes it rather inefficient to a neuroscience newcomer who mainly needs the basic ideas.
More important than which book you pick up, though, is how you read it. It's very important at this stage to really start thinking about the big questions in each subfield so that 1) you don't gloss over important details or, worse, crucial principles; and 2) you're preparing your mindset for research. You can't read it as a passive observer, absorbing information rather than processing it. Ask questions. How do we know this and this about the brain? What principles can we anticipate about the brain (and by implication: perception, memory, cognition) based on its structure and development? When do neurons first start firing anyway? If you're doing it right, you'll be making use of Kandel a lot to probe deeper — and eventually review/experimental papers when you're ready.
tl;dr - Read that shit if you're doing research and you'll thank me later.
It's actually funny that you say that because that's exactly the situation I was in. I was going through some personal issues as I was finishing up school, so I kind of made a point of avoiding fieldwork placements that I assumed were going to be challenging for me. I also didn't think phys dis was a population I was interested in working in. So I did one in mental health and the other in a school district.
So when I first started doing home care I spent a TON of time researching my patients the night before and looking up common interventions before I went to see them. Google is your friend! And I would recommend the Reed Quick Reference book if you don't already have it.
No good company is going to throw a new grad right into seeing patients without some training and shadowing a more experienced therapist. Make sure you ask about training before accept an offer. If it sounds like they're going to throw you out in the field right away on day one; don't accept the job.
And, yes, I work for a large nonprofit hospital system that has their own home care department.
The OT Toolkit has a lot of great ideas!
https://www.amazon.com/Occupational-Therapy-Toolkit-Treatment-Handouts/dp/1482632861
Have you checked out the OT Toolkit?
https://www.amazon.com/Occupational-Therapy-Toolkit-Treatment-Handouts/dp/1482632861
The book I was always recommended was Bones and Joints: A Guide for Students by Chris Gunn.
I wasn't mad on the x-ray quality inside it, a bit dark for my liking, I felt it burned out some of the detail, but it is a good resource if you have a spare £30 or so.
If not, I am sure there are other resources, especially free ones out there.
Eric Kandel's Principles of Neural Science would be a great starting point.
My SO uses this!
Edit: The 5th edition, my bad.
I have not worked in the NICU, but I took a specialized class about it when I was in school. It is a setting that requires a high level of expertise since the babies are literally on the verge of death. Much of the OT's role includes positioning, feeding, controlling the sensory environment, and parent support and coaching.
According to what we were told it is extremely unlikely that they would consider hiring a new grad and it would not be an appropriate placement for a fieldwork student. It was a pretty big deal that we got to visit the NICU at all. If that was the direction we wanted to go with our career, we were encouraged to get experience in hospitals and early intervention. I'd be interested to hear if your school had NICU fieldwork placements available.
Our textbook for the class was Developmental and Therapeutic Interventions in the NICU if you're interested in learning more.
Quick Reference to Occupational Therapy https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Reference-Occupational-Therapy-Kathlyn/dp/1416405453/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=occupational+therapy+reed&qid=1555635079&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0838577016/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1517968463&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=principles+of+neural+science&dpPl=1&dpID=51aom9pcslL&ref=plSrch
Principles of Neural Science by Kandrl et al.
As someone who studies neuro and works in neuro I can safely say this tome is my bible. It is huge, 37 bucks new because it is an old edition, one of the few textbooks I'd call well written, and has huge listings of primary lit to read for each chapter. It's not primarily for entertainment like most of the books I've seen put here. Man, it is worth its substantial weight in gold. If you actually want to learn, and a diverse amount in the field, get this. If you ever get stuck on points the internet is a truly amazing resource. However, this book is so well written I doubt that will happen often.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Occupational-Therapy-Mental-Health-4e/dp/0443100276 Seems like a good place to start given your background
Also, I didn't take the prep course but had friends that did and let me borrow the book. It's like $5 on Amazon and gives a pretty good overview of the test and how to approach the questions.
http://www.amazon.com/2010-Occupational-Therapy-Course-Manual/dp/B003VFUXRG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1459280395&sr=8-3&keywords=therapy+ed+course+manual
I'm looking for this book, do you think they might have it?
Is this the SOAP note book you were given? http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0133110494/ref=pd_luc_rh_wl_02_01_t_lh?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for the response.
I would recommend this book. It’s really good defining types of interventions (VMI, Sensory, etc.) and descriptive with examples of OT interventions. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/161711930X/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile
Pininterest is also pretty awesome.
I may not be the best example for this, but I barely studied for the test and ending up getting a 520 on it, although I took the COTA version. It really doesn't test your knowledge, you just have to know how they want you to answer. You went through years of school and passed fieldwork, so you know the material, you really do. Your specific study style depends on what works best for you. I'm lucky and things tend to come naturally for me, so I'll answer your questions based on what I did.
I can't say what's on the OTR test, but for the COTA test it was a few straight knowledge questions, and they rest was what is the best course of action questions. If you think you're going to be overwhelmed by the amount of material, I would advise you to stay away from flashcards. I would personally prefer to read a book rather than go through hundreds of flashcards, but it really depends on your personal study habits. How do you normally prepare for tests?
Wound Care: A Collaborative Practice Manual for Health Professionals (Sussman, Wound Care) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608317153/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RqA6AbNEC74N5
My next purchase for myself. Not very exciting, but functional and necessary for me to improve at my new job.
mp3
JORDAN CATALANO WON AN OSCAR AND MY HEART
Thanks for the contest!
For my dysphagia course, we used Murry & Carrau's Clinical Management of Swallowing Disorders. It was pretty cool. If you're interested, here is the amazon link.
First, let start off by saying that I feel your frustration. That sucks to be so close to the finish line only to barely miss the mark that enables you to cross.
One of the best resources I can suggest is the AOTA’s NBCOT Exam Prep Info Center Facebook group page. This has been an excellent resource for me throughout my studying for multiple reasons: drawn-up schedules for studying based on study materials you have, reviews and discussions on study materials that helped/didn’t help, and people sharing support/frustration surrounding the exam. It’s entirely possible that you are already a member of the group, but if not I definitely think this will be helpful for you. In the very least, check out their Files section.
Second, I would suggest pinpointing what topics seem to be your areas in need of improvement. Both the Occupational Therapy Examination Review Guide and AOTA Exam Prep are great ways to help you study and figure out what exactly those areas are with suggested resources to read up on.
Hang in there, man.
My honest advice is to email some researchers whose work interests you. Grad school is a strange business, where the right advisor will want you to study under them and will pay you to make it happen. If you are really interested in doing research in a field for which your own country has no framework, you will have to move at some point. Grad studies are the ideal time to try it out, precisely because there isn't much financial risk.
As for teaching yourself, textbooks are your best friend. One that I really enjoyed was Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience by Purves et al.. Another panelist recommended a text book by Eric Kandel for a good background of basic neuroscience. There are also some good online resources like WikiBooks, though they are admittedly sparse or incomplete. Just start with the basics and work your way up.
Re: staying up to date, your current school may give you access to an online article database, which I would recommend scouring and reading everything you can get your hands on.
Which book is that? Is it kandels 'principles of neural science'? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-Kandel-x/dp/0071120009
The chapter on the basal ganglia and related motor disorders from Eric Kandel et al.'s last edition of Principles of Neural Science has a very nice overview IMO. If you search around the dark corners of the web, I'm sure a .pdf will find you.
I think the best resource for starting out, or for more advanced readers, is Principles of Neural Science by Kandel. You could choose the chapters you're most interested (e.g., embryology and functional anatomy) and read them in any order since each chapter is essentially free-standing. (Source: b.s. in neuroscience + m.d.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0838577016?pc_redir=1405881514&robot_redir=1#productDescription_secondary_view_pageState_1405953363324
Per amazon: "The book is a feast for both the eye and mind. The richness, the beauty, and the complexity of neuroscience is all captured in this...book."
Kandel's Principles is a great one, and the textbook I used when I was a TA. You can buy older issues for like $15 shipped
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/0838577016/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all
Anything by Oliver Sacks is going to give you a really cool look at individual case studies.