Educating for community-based occupational therapy practice: a demonstration project

The Community Development Progress and Evaluation Tool: Assessing community development fieldwork / Un outil pour évaluer les stages en développement communautaire: Le Community Development Progress and Evaluation Tool

Background.

Both the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) and World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) fieldwork guidelines promote fieldwork experiences that build community capacity. Yet, no existing tool that assesses the unique skills of community development fieldwork could be identified within or outside of occupational therapy.

Purpose.

This article describes the development of the Community Development Progress and Evaluation Tool (CD-PET), an assessment of community development fieldwork in occupational therapy.

Tool Development.

The CD-PET was developed in five distinct phases: (a) literature review, (b) identification of a theoretical framework, (c) tool construction, (d) pilot testing, and (e) ongoing refinement. Focus groups yielded input from preceptors and students. Once developed, the assessment was pilot tested with feedback received through an online survey completed by preceptors and students. Key enablement skills identified in Enabling Occupation II provided the foundation for the tool.

Implication.

The CD-PET is a student assessment and learning tool for occupational therapy students and preceptors that supports learning in the key enablement skills that are used in community development fieldwork.

An International Systematic Mapping Review of Educational Approaches and Teaching Methods in Occupational Therapy

Introduction:

Scholars have long examined educational approaches and teaching methods in occupational therapy, producing a wide range of educational scholarship. Yet the scope of the scholarship has not been systematically categorised and described, leaving the field without a baseline and guide for its educational science.

Method:

A systematic mapping review identified topics, research designs, levels of impact and themes across educational scholarship. Through comprehensive database searches and inclusion and exclusion coding, 129 articles published between 2000 and 2009 were studied. Data were collected using a data extraction tool modified from Best Evidence Medical Education, entered into Microsoft Access and analysed using queries.

Findings:

Conceptual/descriptive papers (n = 76) represented the primary form of inquiry. Research papers (n = 53) used qualitative designs slightly more than quantitative or mixed methods. Educational interventions (n = 22) targeted students' skills, knowledge, attitudes and perceptions, but not their behaviours, organisational change or impact on clients. Prominent themes included integrative learning, learning paradigm, complexities of practice, student reasoning and calls for reforming occupational therapy education.

Conclusion:

Priorities for educational research include deepen and diversify studies of local learning situations, develop profession-specific conceptual frameworks for learning and measure outcomes beyond student views of the learning activity.

Educating for community-based practice: a collaborative strategy

SUMMARY This paper describes creative instruction strategies that prepare students for community-based practice. These educational innovations are designed to prepare graduates to understand occupation-based service delivery in community settings, to develop community-built programs that are responsive to community needs, and to understand how to both secure funding for and market occupational therapy services in the community. The process and products of collaboration between instructors in an administration and a community-based practice course are described. Outcome data from students and community partners are presented. Strategies for successful community partnerships and recommendations for continued development of these educational approaches are presented based on these data.

Constructing a program development proposal for community-based practice: a valuable learning experience for occupational therapy students

SUMMARY Skills required to develop and fund programs can advance an occupational therapist professionally, and innovative occupation-based programs are necessary for the future of occupational therapy. This paper describes a community-based learning experience embedded within the occupational therapy curriculum of the Medical College of Ohio. While developing the Program Development Proposal, each student practices needs assessment; marketing; goals- and objectives-setting; occupation-based programming; budgeting; staffing; program evaluation; and grantsmanship. Outcome surveys of graduates indicate that the experience was positive and provided graduates with a solid foundation for program development. The experience also enhanced partnerships with community-based sites.