Educational Programs In Occupational Therapy Research Articles

Assessing occupational therapy students' clinical competence for entry-level work-related practice

The purpose of occupational therapy (OT) educational programs is to graduate effective clinicians who join the job market with competencies consistent with the expected entry-level practice. To attain an effective process of clinical competence development, OT educational programs design competence-based curricula to instill pre-licensure readiness in their graduating students for entry-level work-related practice. The purpose of the study was to perform a retrospective outcome competence assessment for evaluating OT students participating in the first three consecutive offerings of a graduate seminar intended to assess and increase pre-licensure skills and knowledge required for entry-level evidence-based work-related practice. The assessment examined differences in post vs. pre-seminar National Board Certificate Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) practice test score caused by (a) main time of test-taking effect; (b) main class effect; and (c) tine and class interaction effect. 62 students. A total of 62 students who graduated from the program during the three academic years 2008, 2009 and 2010 participated in the study. Post vs. pre-seminar NBCOT practice test score was significantly higher across the three-year period and increased significantly in each of the three classes. Interaction effect did not alter the pattern of post vs. pre-seminar score increase in each class. The significant time and class main effects validated the effectiveness of the seminars in increasing post vs. pre-seminar practice test score in each of the three classes. The significant time x class interaction effect validated the pattern of post vs. pre-seminar score increase regardless of the class sequence.

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Instructional Insight into Interprofessional Education (IPE)

ABSTRACTWorking with other health science professionals in order to promote positive client outcomes is common practice in many rehabilitation delivery areas. The evolution of health care delivery seems to expect more efficient and cost effective client care, therefore the introduction of blended professional teams is moving to the forefront of professional education. As such, providing opportunities to health science students to experience the roles and practice of other professions during the academic portion of their education, Interprofessional Education (IPE), has become and expectation of accrediting bodies.The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) has included standards related to IPE (ACOTE, 2012). The most recent ACOTE standards, effective July 2013, require occupational therapy educators to provide interprofessional collaborative situations to increase student awareness of and participation in interprofessional learning (ACOTE, 2012). This article describes some of the IPE experiences of one small university as well as provides suggestion for other occupational therapy educational programs to move forward to meeting the newly established accreditation standards.

OT-PEP: Development of a Professional Education Paradigm for Occupational Therapy

This study aims to determine the fundamental tenets that define the occupational therapy education process, and to develop a professional education paradigm that corresponds to those principles. Interpretive phenomenology with Heideggerian hermeneutic philosophy was used to explicate the paradigmatic themes embedded in the occupational therapy body of knowledge. The results yielded the Occupational Therapy Professional Education Paradigm (OT-PEP), which is organized around three core concepts: Adaptive thinking, reflection, and creation of meaning. The OT-PEP is important to occupational therapy because it addresses the elements of the education process that are reflective of the philosophical underpinnings of the profession and brings together these understandings as a unified whole. Interpretive phenomenology asserts that analysis of data is influenced by the phenomenologist’s repertoire of experience. Therefore, the OT-PEP presented in the article can be considered a single offering from the author that has the potential to morph with additional analyses. The author is hopeful that occupational therapy education programs will discuss and debate the OT-PEP constructs and determine which elements are most valuable. In addition, novice educators could use the OT-PEP as a faculty development tool to assist with transitioning from clinical practice to academia.

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Spirituality in Occupational Therapy: Do We Practice What We Teach?

This mixed-method study examined the responses of 97 occupational therapists on the subject of spirituality in occupational therapy practice. The inclusion of spirituality into the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (2008) implies that clinicians address spirituality as a component of client-centered practice. This research revealed a gap between education, theory, and practice as evidenced in the quantitative and qualitative data. Although occupational therapy is intended to be holistic, therapists require a more complete understanding of what spirituality is and what the role of the occupational therapist is when addressing spirituality in evaluation or treatment. The discussion of this research provides information for future occupational therapy educators and educational programs as they seek to incorporate the construct of spirituality into curricula.

Factors Affecting the Number of Students Engaged in Mental Health Fieldwork Education

Fieldwork is essential for training future mental health practitioners. In this study, the authors identified factors predicting the number of students engaged in mental health fieldwork education. Proactive efforts (e.g., setting up structured fieldwork programs), such as offering both Level I and Level II fieldwork experiences, and perceiving no challenge to accepting Level II fieldwork students, predicted greater numbers of students participating in fieldwork. Clinicians who had set up structured fieldwork programs were more likely to have guest lectured in an occupational therapy education program and met with interested students. This is the first study to identify factors that predict participation in mental health fieldwork.

Ergonomics work assessment in rural industrial settings: A student occupational therapy project

This case study describes a student occupational therapy (OT) program, the creation of a worksite assessment project as a part of a Community Connections: Partners for Learning and Service grant funded by Health Resources and Services Administration. The primary goals were to design occupation-based community learning experiences in a variety of rural community settings, so that students might benefit from participating in the community based learning and: based on the results, embed occupation-based learning into existing occupational therapy curriculum. The components of the project and the ergonomics content of the OT education program are described; details of the work assessment are presented with analysis of data from the student evaluation of this project.

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Is Occupational Therapy Adequately Meeting the Needs of People With Chronic Pain?

Is Occupational Therapy Adequately Meeting the Needs of People With Chronic Pain?

An Exploratory Study of the Occupation-Focused Models Included in Occupational Therapy Professional Education Programmes

Introduction: Occupation-focused models are one method of integrating occupation into occupational therapy education programmes. They offer a theoretical basis for practice by providing explanations about the process and practice of the profession. Method: This exploratory study used a quantitative research framework to investigate which occupation-focused models are included in occupational therapy programmes, the rationale for their inclusion and how the models are integrated into curricula. A survey was sent to 193 occupational therapy programmes in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Results: The response rate was 33.8% (n = 65). The data showed that each programme included between 3 and 10 occupation-focused models. The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement and the Model of Human Occupation were included in 98.5% of all curricula surveyed. Conclusion: The educators used a multilayered decision-making process to determine which occupation-focused models to include in a curriculum. The instructional methods varied, but most programmes used practice placement education as a teaching strategy. Further research is required into how curriculum design influences a practitioner's future use of occupation-focused models in practice. A better understanding is needed of how professional practice education affects students' values and attitudes towards the use of occupation-focused models.

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy: August 2010

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy: August 2010

Impact factor and the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal: A notable achievement

Journal quality metrics have been around since the 1960s (Garfield, 2006). Currently the primary journal quality metrics used by universities, research review agencies and research funding bodies are those published by the Thomson Reuters ISI (a private, for-profit company) and reported in the Journal Citation Reports® (JCR). They are based on citation data for journals included in the Science Citation Index/(Expanded) (SCI/(E)) and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), which can collectively be searched through the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge database. One key journal quality metric that is calculated in the JCR is the Impact Factor (IF), a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the current year to articles published in the previous two years by the total number of articles published in the previous two years. Another quality metric often reported is the journal ranking of a publication on the JCR database. Three years ago, the AOTJ editorial board with assistance from staff from Wiley-Blackwell prepared an application for submission to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge for the AOTJ to be included on the database, to receive an IF and journal ranking. Two years ago, the AOTJ submission was accepted. Now for the first time, the AOTJ has an IF of 0.438, an impressive achievement indeed. Currently there are only three other occupational therapy journals in the JCR Reports for 2009. The 2009 IFs for these three journals were: American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT), 1.419; Occupational Therapy Journal of Research (OTJR), 0.358; and Hong Kong Journal of Occupational Therapy (HKJOT), 0.462. The 2009 SJR journal rankings for AOTJ, HKJOT, AJOT and OTJR were 31/36, 30/36, 17/55 and 50/55, respectively. IFs are increasingly being used in academic, research and grant funding arenas as a quality indicator of individual staff members and as an eligibility criteria for promotion, pay increases, grant funding access eligibility and receiving resources within higher education contexts (Saha, Saint & Christakis, 2003). For example, the Australian Government/Australian Research Council (2010) has initiated a programme referred to as the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative which will assess ‘research quality within Australia’s higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts’ (retrieved on 2 August 2010 from http://www.arc.gov.au/era/default.htm). One of the quantitative indicators that will be used to assess universities’ research quality, including those that have occupational therapy education programs, will be the JCR IF and journal ranking. How universities perform in the ERA exercise will have significant implications for the allocation of scarce research funding resources. The ERA has also developed its own journal ranking system where publications from all fields of study (e.g. psychology, physics, law and engineering) are ranked as A, B or C based on their quality indicators such as prestige, quality and rigor. Currently, no occupational therapy journals have been given the ranking of A by ERA, AOTJ and AJOT are ranked level B and other occupational therapy journals are ranked as a level C (such as CJOT, BJOT, SJOT and OTI). IF and other journal quality metrics are points of reference for occupational therapists (and others) who publish and hopefully this will encourage prospective authors to submit high-calibre manuscripts to AOTJ that are relevant to the discipline. In order for the AOTJ to remain competitive (nationally and internationally) and relevant to its readership and the authors who publish in it, achieving an IF is an outstanding accomplishment. The AOTJ editorial board in collaboration with Wiley-Blackwell will continue to work on constructive ways to improve the journal’s IF and journal ranking when it is next calculated and published. This will assist to ensure that the AOTJ continues to be the high-quality, useful, recognised refereed publication it is.

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

List of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy students' attitudes towards inclusion education in Australia, United Kingdom, United States and Taiwan

This international, cross-cultural study investigated the attitudes of occupational therapy students from Australia, United Kingdom, United States and Taiwan towards inclusive education for students with disabilities. The possible impact of professional education on students' attitudes was also explored. A total of 485 students from 11 entry-level occupational therapy education programmes from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Taiwan participated in the study. Among them, 264 were freshmen (first-year students) and 221 were seniors (final-year students). Data collected from a custom-designed questionnaire were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. In general, the occupational therapy students reported having positive attitudes towards inclusion. Considerable differences, however, existed among the student groups from the four countries. Professional education appeared to have a significant impact on students' attitudes towards inclusion from first year to senior year. Although students were in favour of inclusion, they also cautioned that their support for inclusive practices depended on various factors such as adequate preparation, support and assistance to students with disabilities. Limitations of the study included the small, convenience sample and different degree structures of the participating programmes. Future research studies need to compare occupational therapy students' attitudes with students from other health care professions. A longitudinal study on the impact of the professional education programme on students' attitudes towards inclusive education is warranted.

Internationalising Occupational Therapy Education

Internationalisation in higher education involves the incorporation of international themes into teaching and learning and is an important tool that occupational therapy education programmes can use to prepare students to work in culturally diverse environments. Research indicates that internationalised education programmes aid students in developing a better understanding of their own values and beliefs, an understanding of and respect for other cultures, a wider view of their profession, and verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Recent developments in occupational therapy, such as the understanding of how international issues affect daily occupations, the changing demographics of the client base and the widening scope of practice, have increased the need for education programmes to embrace internationalisation.

Opinion Paper A perspective on entry level occupational therapy education

Educational standards for entry into the profession of occupational therapy have undergone widespread changes in the past decade. The impacts of higher education standards in North America and in Europe have been positive for both the visibility and practice of the profession. These changes have been reflected in the Standards and Quality Programme of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. This paper provides a summary of these challenges and the opinion of the author on steps toward meeting these challenges in way that supports all occupational therapy educational programs.

Listing of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Listing of Educational Programs in Occupational Therapy

Mentoring in Health Sciences Education: A Review of the Literature

Mentoring is a concept that has been around for many years, but has only gained popularity in health science education programs over the past 20 years. Nursing, in particular, has recognized the short- and long-term benefits of mentoring students. The primary benefits are career and psychosocial development, which enables students to be successful in their educational programs. Mentoring also assists with easing the transition from student to graduate in a shorter period. In this literature review, the authors examined mentoring programs from nursing, medical school, pharmacy, and occupational therapy educational programs. Each of these health science programs reported favourable outcomes for their students involved in mentoring relationships, such as decreased stress and anxiety about their education, increased feelings of belonging to their programs and professions, and increased self-confidence and self-esteem. These studies help to confirm that mentoring can have a dramatic influence on the success and retention of students enrolled in health science programs. Unfortunately, no recent literature is available that specifically addresses mentoring practices in the medical radiation sciences. This article will attempt to show that results from current research in other health science educational programs could be used in forming medical radiation sciences mentoring programs. Developing these programs could have the same positive effects on recruitment and retention as they have in related disciplines.