CHOOSING A SUPERVISOR OR MENTOR - DO THEY NEED TO BE A DRIVER ASSESSOR OT?

I started off writing a very different blog post, but a change in direction was inspired by a chance phone conversation with a good friend and OT mentor of mine.

As clinicians I think we are naturally drawn to choosing a clinical supervisor from the same clinical specialty that we are working in. This makes sense most of the time, but I don't think this always holds true for Driver Assessor OT's.

As Driver Assessor OT's we frequently provide services to clients ranging in age from 16 years to 85 years or older. Many of us also see clients with a variety of medical conditions, diagnoses and impairments and we need to have a reasonable level of clinical knowledge about each of these.

During our OT Driver Rehab for New Learner Drivers Workshop earlier this year, some workshop participants may have been surprised that we added an OT to the list of presenters who was not a driver assessor OT. Not only was she not a driver assessor, she's never been involved in a driving assessment, and the majority of her caseload aren't old enough to drive (for all those playing at home I am of course talking about the incredibly skilled paediatric OT Joanna Caton, The Free Range OT).

Why did we do it? The answer to that is simple ... one of the largest groups of new learner drivers seeking OT Driver Assessments are teenagers with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and this was one of the areas of practice that we were covering in the workshop. And although Lyndall and I have a lot of experience working with new learners with an autism spectrum disorder in the context of learning to drive, neither of us have a solid clinical background of working with these clients outside of driver assessments.

WHY is this important? I firmly believe it is not enough to only have clinical skills relating to driving! My clinical background is in the areas of TBI, SCI and amputees, and when I work with clients in these clinical diagnostic groups I have a wealth of knowledge to inform my clinical reasoning. Having never worked clinically with teens with an autism spectrum disorder outside of driver assessments my frame of reference is somewhat limited. For this reason I need to make sure I have access to someone who has a high level of clinical expertise in this area to ensure my clinical reasoning and decision making is sound.

From the feedback we received after the workshop it became clear that the knowledge and clinical experience of a non-driver assessor, paediatric OT was not only relevant to the workshop topic, but was essential in helping us to understand how to work with new learner drivers who come to us with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. And like any mentoring arrangement the knowledge flowed in both directions, with our paediatric OT learning information that she could take back to inform her work with teenagers approaching the time when they may be considering gaining their learners licence.

For me this highlights the importance of selecting your mentors and supervisors carefully. Yes it is essential to have access to high quality clinical supervision from a Driver Assessor OT, but it is equally important to ensure you have a broader pool of clinical experts to draw from that reflect the diversity of the clients you are working with. A true mentor will help you to expand your clinical knowledge base, develop your understanding, act as a sounding board and motivate you to achieve your goals regardless of their area of clinical expertise.

Choose wisely!