Vocational assessment: a review of the literature from an occupation-based perspective

Abstract

The vast majority of the currently available vocational assessments are used to measure a worker's physical body functions and/or work capacity, while very few, if any, can be utilized to measure actual work performance. Within this research project, the authors conducted a brief review of the literature and synthesized the existing evidence related to some of the key vocational assessments that are utilized by occupational therapists. It was found that the current "gold standard" of vocational assessment is the Functional Capacity Evaluation, yet the evidence does not fully support its reliability and validity in determining an employee's ability to safely return to work. Alternative assessment options were explored, emphasizing the utilization of occupation-focused, performance-based assessment strategies. It is concluded that occupational therapists need to take action to develop and promote the use of performance-based measures of actual work ability. Occupational therapists must capitalize on their unique strengths of evaluating occupational performance and take the lead to develop standardized means of assessing, measuring, and predicting work performance and work status.

Development of a new tool to evaluate work support needs and guide vocational rehabilitation: the Work-ability Support Scale (WSS)

“…This would usually include physical and/or cognitive rehabilitation and assessment of the barriers to work, and may also involve assessment and possibly modification of the workplace and/or work role [e.g. see 8,9,10]. Work--disability and its inverse work--ability is inherently linked with the actual role and tasks that a person is required to perform in their work, as an impairment can affect different types of tasks in different ways.…”

The impact of adjustment latitude on self-assessed work ability in regard to gender and occupational type

“…Information on work ability can also be obtained by more "objective" methods such as external judgments by professionals. Most of the existing objectives methods can be regarded as assessments of function, that is, they assess an individual's capacity without taking working conditions into consideration [16]. It may, of course, be questioned whether self-reports reflect true work ability.…”

The Relationship between Carrying Activity and Low Back Pain: A Critical Review of Biomechanics Studies

“…Clinically, one of the major assessments to determine the physical readiness for return-to-work is Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE). Being regarded as the gold standard of vocational assessment (McFadden et al 2010), the major role of the assessment is to analyse the consistency between a patient's performance in work-related physical activities and the relevant job demands. Although each activity has been used for different protocol in the assessment, a number of protocols can be grouped to represent primary job demand of a profession.…”