Chelsea Townsend

David Nelson Slagle Lecture

Nelson, D. L. (1997). Why the Profession of Occupational Therapy will Flourish in the 21st
Century. American Journal of Occupational Therapy. 51, 11-24.
David Nelson is a well-known figure in the field of occupational therapy. His Slagle
lecture expands on the definition and means of occupation and the importance of occupational
therapy as a profession. Nelson defines occupation as the relationship between an occupational
form and an occupational performance. Occupational performance is the doing and
occupational form is the thing, or form that is done. Nelson describes the subjective aspects of
occupation as meaning and purpose. Meaning is the persons active interpretation of
occupational form and purpose is the persons goal orientation (Nelson, 1997).The theoretical
frame of reference describes methodical guidelines for occupational therapy practice. Nelson
states that the two most important aspects of this reference are (1) a theoretical base describing
healthy and unhealthy occupations and (2) principles and techniques for occupational syntheses
(Nelson, 1997). In his Slagle lecture, Nelson describes past and current models of occupational
practice that were and are influential to the field of occupational therapy.
By outlining these models, Nelsons goal is to stress the significance of occupational
therapy and the need for new models of practice in the future. According to the Independent
Living Movement, people with disabilities view themselves as consumers of health care services
(Nelson, 1997). The fundamentals of this model are going to continue to strive in the future and
greater significance is going to be placed on technology trends, and emphasis on health
promotion and wellness, and disease prevention.
Nelson recommends that research should be a primary focus for the 21st century. By
contributing evidence-based research to the field of occupational therapy, it will eventually take
its rightful place among the prominent health care professions. Nelsons second recommendation
is for occupational therapists to embrace the idea of occupation as therapy. He makes a good
point that often people use other words such as activity, rehabilitation, or function to
describe our profession. However, we are not activity therapists or rehabilitation therapists
or functional therapists, we are occupational therapists and we need to emphasis the word
occupation to become more well-known and clearly describe our profession to society.
I agree with Nelson that emphasis on occupation is important because if it is accented
more in our professional activity then people will associate our profession with meaningful
activities of daily living, rather than helping people find jobs or other misconceptions. With

these changes, occupational therapy will gain more respect and recognition among other health
care professions.