047: Hand Therapy in Acute Care with Adrienne Tesarek, OTR/L, CHT

Hand therapy isn’t limited to the outpatient setting—many patients begin their recovery in the hospital. Join us as we interview Adrienne Tesarek, OTR/L, CHT from San Diego, CA, who began her career working in the acute care environment then became a CHT in an outpatient setting.  Adrienneshares her insights on working with patients during the early stages of recovery and highlights the key elements needed to prepare them for a successful transition to outpatient care. She also discusses the course she developed to help acute-care therapists sharpen their clinical problem-solving skills and better support hand therapy patients as they move from hospital to home and beyond.

Adrienne Tesarek is a graduate of Louisiana StateUniversity in New Orleans, Louisiana and moved to California after graduation. Her career started at UCSD Medical Center which was the first Level I trauma center in the area. She was an inpatient therapist before transitioning to the outpatient department where she mentored to sit for the hand exam. She became a CHT in 2005. Since that time, she has done teaching at Grossmont Community College in their OTA program and presented at OT conferences on custom orthotic fabrication and conservative management of thumb CMC OA and conservative management of carpal tunnel syndrome. In 2013 she moved to Los Angeles to work at UCLA and was a member of the Rehab Services Education Committee coordinatingcontinuing education for her fellow OT’s. Also, during her time in Los Angeles, she joined the non-profit Hand Therapy Society of Greater Los Angeles, serving as their secretary and is currently the president. She moved back to San Diegoin 2021 and currently works for Palomar Health in Poway, CA.  She has taken the position of president of the San Diego Hand Special Interest Group and formed a new education committee at Palomar Health. She is currently gathering information on post-op complications following distal radius fractures for a study she is conducting as well as teaching a course on RehabEd on Managing acute hand injuries.

Adrienne is married and has 2 Greyhounds who have beenrescued from a racetrack that closed in neighboring Tijuana Mexico. She enjoys yoga, being outdoors and traveling.

Contact via- LinkedIn and email address: [e-mail]