Adapting research instruction to support the scholarship of practice: practice-scholar partnerships.

ABSTRACT Evidence-based practice (EBP) is crucial to the success of delivering quality occupational therapy services. The skill to engage in the scholarship of practice is central to being able to create evidence specific to one's everyday practice and leads to an emerging role within occupational therapy called the practice-scholar. The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the effectiveness of an instructional approach that engaged the scholarship of practice and the functions of a practice-scholar. Occupational therapy graduate students and practitioners collaborated to develop a practice-based study proposal during a traditional experimental research class. The objective was to apply research concepts contextualized within the natural practice context while developing the role of the practice-scholar in designing outcomes studies. As part of an entry-level research course, students (n == 39) and practitioners (n == 14) were grouped into learning teams and discussed two self-assessments to reflect on their self-efficacy perceptions of practice-scholarship research at the beginning and the end of a series of guided sessions to design a research proposal. Postcourse results show that students' perceptions of self-efficacy improved regarding their abilities to participate in practice-scholarship as a result of the learning partnerships. Anecdotal similarities were found for practitioners. As an instructional method, the learning partnership facilitated the development of foundational knowledge and skills related to becoming practice-scholars through increased self-efficacy in using proposal design. This educational approach proactively used the scholarship of practice research to bridge practice and education using a meaningful, partnership-based model for entry-level graduate students and occupational therapy practitioners.

Commentary: realizing the vision through fieldwork education.

A systematic process for students to actively direct their own professional competence is needed with careful realignment of fieldwork placements to ensure acquisition of future professional competencies. This transformative habit should begin in the academic portion of their learning and further developed during field-work.

Entry-Level OTR and COTA Intervention Utilization Derived from NBCOT Practice Analysis: Implications for Fieldwork Experiences.

Effective fieldwork provides students with learning experiences in preparation for entry-level practice as occupational therapists (OT) or occupational therapy assistants (OTA). In 2003, the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Inc.® (NBCOT) conducted a practice analysis of entry-level certified occupational therapy practitioners (OTR & COTA) to validate a test blueprint for the national certification examinations. This study reports a novel, elective survey reflecting the total percentage of entry-level practitioners, who reported use of 88 different interventions. The purpose of this paper is to translate the practice analysis intervention data gathered in the optional survey to plan and implement effective fieldwork that prepares fieldwork students for entry-level practice. The results of this study will provide understanding of intervention use among entry-level practitioners (OTR = 479; COTA = 168) as a function of practice context. An initial correlation of a random sample of 100 OTRs and COTAs found group equivalency, meaning that the OTR information could be used for the major analyses and generalized to include COTA. Fourteen interventions were found commonly across all practice settings for OTR. These fourteen were factored into three areas or themes (preparatory and activities of daily living; motor skills, posture and coordination; and mental functions) with significant frequency of intervention utilization. Further analysis indicated a high variability of the top thirty interventions for each setting with regard to utilization of interventions above and below the 50 percentile. This snapshot of practice regarding entry-level intervention utilization in occupational therapy across seven major practice settings is described and application to fieldwork processes elaborated. The information provides a description of practice in each setting that can be used by academic fieldwork coordinators for student placement decisions. Fieldwork educators can use this information as a guide for planning comprehensive fieldwork-learning activities, as well as supervising students. Fieldwork students can use this intervention utilization information to assess their readiness for entry-level practice in each setting.

Service learning: meaningful, community-centered professional skill development for occupational therapy students.

The profession of Occupational Therapy advocates for new and emerging areas of practice that more fully embrace our moral responsibility to address significant social injustices that exist in our communities (Kronenberg, Algado, & Pollard, 2005). The service-learning pedagogy is impacted by the philosophical and theoretical influences of John Dewey, the mission and purpose of American higher education including Boyer's (1994) call for an engaged citizenry, and the social vision of occupational therapy. The pedagogy of service learning provides a natural context for students to experience community practice while contributing to reducing existing social injustices. This paper provides an overview of service learning (SL) as a philosophical and pedagogical approach in occupational therapy education, key processes in developing successful service learning experiences and community partnerships to support service learning. Characteristics of effective service learning, assessment of community and institutional outcomes of service learning and the scholarship of service learning are also discussed. Most importantly, strategies for developing service learning scholarship, an important but frequently neglected requisite to validate any educational practice, are delineated. The authors conclude that service learning provides educators with an opportunity to provide students with experiences in natural, community contexts while developing life-long commitment to civic engagement and social responsibility.

Brief or new: professional development of fieldwork students: occupational adaptation, clinical reasoning, and client-centeredness.

SUMMARY Fieldwork provides occupational therapy students with professional development readiness for entry-level practice. Thus, describing the results of the fieldwork learning process in terms of observed professional behaviors is valuable. This pilot study was initiated as part of program evaluation with the goal to assess fieldwork students' performance maturation, clinical reasoning development, and client-centered behaviors as a result of this specific fieldwork experience. Nine occupational therapy students who completed Level II fieldwork at the Way Station, Inc., in Frederick, MD were videotaped administering the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) to a new client during the 2nd and 10th week of fieldwork to gather descriptions of changes in student professional behavior during the fieldwork experience. Observational analysis demonstrated that primitive and transitional behaviors decreased as mature behaviors increased, clinical reasoning shifted from primarily procedural to interactive and conditional, and client-centered behaviors developed. The findings enhance our understanding of the development of professional behaviors during fieldwork and provide indicants for future studies as well as a methodology for fieldwork supervision.