So What is this and Why?

OT Wikiflash is the rather curious name given to a time, this year during OT week, that we are trying to get a large number of members of the OT community to contribute to the online public encyclopedia that is Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a fantastic resource that many are turning to. Students are turning to it as a means of finding out information as a first port-of-call, clinicans are using it as a quick reference tool, for example to look up a rare syndrome, and most importantly those not associated with OT are using it to find out more information about the profession. This can include parents, carers and I have to say other professionals.

There are however problems with the system and these are largley due to inaccuracies in content. These inaccuracies are often due a to number of reasons; editors plagiarising information, information & references being out of date (and thus wrong), and a poor lack of citing. As much as we can suggest to students and third party members not to use the resource because of these inaccuracies it doesnt mean that people, particularly those that have had nothing to do with healthcare let alone occupational therapy, are not going to turn to this resource first. There is then a duty for OTs as a profession to make sure this content is up to date and accurate. It is not good enough to blindly and quite arrogantly ignore it as "wrong" when you yourselves can correct the information.

Last years OTWikiFlash08 saw vast improvements to the OT pages, Before this OT had a tiny section in the wikipedia world with most content being US centric and largely focused on the title of "Occupational Therapy" rather than lots of sub-sections. For example if you were a parent wanting to know more about what role a OT has in Paediatric Occupational Therapy then your search for this turned up nothing relevant; the closest being a page on "Autism therapies". There is however still room for improvement....

We are suggesting that a lot more OTs get involved in inputting and updating this information worldwide and we would personally like to see UK OTs take a lead. Its not hard and their are numerous guides to help you get involved. As a starting point we have created a small site to aid OTs in the editing process and some suggestions on what/where to make your contribution. This ranges from improving referencing on articles to writing full on sections. It will take up a small part of your time and will be a major investment to your CPD, and most importantly the community at large. The more people that get involved will improve the quality and reliability of information out there - reducing the arguments of inaccuarcy and making a better resource for all of us.