Current practice patterns of Certified Hand Therapists in rehabilitation of complex traumatic hand injuries: A cross-sectional survey.

Authors

Jennifer Dodson, Glenn Gaston, Namrata Grampurohit

Published in

Journal of hand therapy : official journal of the American Society of Hand Therapists. Nov 12, 2026. Epub Nov 12, 2026.

Abstract

No studies have yet documented Certified Hand Therapists' (CHT) practice patterns treating patients with complex traumatic hand injuries, a population that lacks therapeutic evidence for hand therapy interventions.
To describe practice patterns of CHTs and document operational definitions when rehabilitating patients with complex traumatic hand injuries throughout the continuum of care.
A cross-sectional survey study.
An electronic survey in REDCap was distributed to CHTs in the United States with experience treating complex traumatic hand injuries. Questions were organized in the sections of: General issues, Psychological impairments, Physical impairments, and Demographics. General issues included questions on operational definitions, referral, wound care, and communication with surgeon. Psychological and Physical sections probed impairments noted, patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) use, and interventions. Data were analyzed descriptively using frequencies and percentages.
The survey was completed by 319 CHTs from 43 states; 89% of respondents were occupational therapists, and 45% worked in hospital-based outpatient clinics. CHTs agreed with the operational definitions of complex traumatic hand injury (80%) and phases of rehabilitation (81%). Most CHTs reported receiving referrals in the protective phase within 0-6 weeks (85%), communicating with surgeons (89%), addressing shoulder/elbow range of motion (99%), and performing wound care (92%). Patient-reported outcome measures were commonly used for physical impairments (94%) but limited for psychological impairments (14%). CHTs frequently encounter psychological impairments in their clients (97%) and mostly refer to other healthcare professionals (68%). Physical impairments are treated with numerous interventions and precautions are taken in the protective phase when there is a concurrent nerve or vascular injury (98%).
Complex traumatic hand injuries have varied presentations but CHTs agreed on common definitions, impairments, measures, and approaches to treatment. Psychological impairments were not routinely addressed in current CHT assessment and treatment practices. The findings highlight CHT practice patterns that can inform care, future research efforts, and training needs to overcome educational gaps.

PMID:
43015188
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Nov 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.