April 23, 2024 • 20 mins
Join host Gina as she delves into the world of occupational therapy education, focusing on the crucial role of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) in student fieldwork experiences. Learn how the OTPF can empower students to navigate the transition from academia to clinical practice with confidence and competence. Gain practical insights and strategies for incorporating the OTPF into your fieldwork placements and maximizing your learning potential. Tune in for expert advice, personal anecdotes, and invaluable resources to support your journey towards becoming a successful OT or OTA practitioner.
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Microphone (3- Logitech U (00:00):
Well, we couldn't celebrate.
April as occupational therapymonth.
If we didn't take a moment toacknowledge our OT and OTA
students.
And this week, I want to justtake a little bit of time to
talk about our students and youguessed it.
How I incorporate theoccupational therapy practice
framework.
(00:20):
Let's get started.
Hi, welcome to animals andaquatics MJ, your host today.
And I'm excited to talk aboutthe OTPF and how I incorporate
(00:44):
it into field work settings withstudents.
I find that it can be reallyhelpful in helping students
bridge something that hopefullythey're very familiar with from
their academic setting.
Into a new area of practice thatis definitely novel for all of
the students that I've taken.
Even students who have aninterest in nature based therapy
aquatics, or hippotherapydefinitely have a bit of a jump
(01:05):
to make when going from anacademic setting.
Into a field work experiencethat is as diverse as ours is.
So when I want to explain alittle bit.
Is in the academic setting.
Some of, you may already knowthat I'm a professor in an
occupational therapy assistantprogram.
(01:26):
I teach the pediatric lab in thefall and in the spring I teach
the psychosocial lecture andlab.
And I find it important toincorporate the OTPF in both
sections.
When I'm working with students,I find it gives them a really
good framework to start to putideas into practice.
It's a good reference point forany of the semesters that
(01:48):
they're in.
It doesn't have to be just thepsychosocial semester or just
the pediatric semester.
They're going to use it in.
Physical disabilities,geriatrics.
Basically from the beginning oftheir occupational therapy
education to the end of theiroccupational therapy education,
this document can go with themand assist them.
And one of the discussions thatactually just came up this week
(02:10):
with my current students.
Is that there are about halfwaya little more than halfway,
maybe two thirds of the waythrough their program at this
point.
And they're really feeling likethey need to be able to
incorporate more occupationaltherapy terminology when they're
describing what they're seeingin their field work settings
with clients.
And many of them have started toreference it.
(02:32):
They're going to go back to theOTPF and start to read through
it again, particularly theperformance skills.
The process skills, the clientfactors to help them with their
terminology.
They know what they're seeingnow.
They can make those clinicalobservations, but they're really
having a hard time with thelanguage to describe them.
(02:53):
Especially when they're talkingeither to other clinicians or
people at their field worksites.
So I'm happy to see that thestudents are starting to
incorporate the occupationaltherapy practice framework as a
reference point that will helpthem build some of the skills
that are really important forthem as they transition from a
(03:13):
student into a clinician.
And then they know that thatresource is always there for
them.
When I was a student, whichseems like a million years ago,
the OTPF was still part of ouroccupational therapy education.
And I remember finding it reallyhelpful as a guideline to
structure my thoughts.
And I think that's one of thereasons why I gravitated towards
(03:37):
it, because it was a morestructured way.
To organize myself.
And I knew that I was going intoa nontraditional setting.
My first two choices were mentalhealth or incorporating
hippotherapy.
So I knew I was going into.
A more nontraditional area.
And I knew that I was going toneed to be able to communicate
(03:58):
with other professionals in away that everybody would
understand.
I didn't want to create my ownthing.
That would be very difficult forother occupational therapy
providers or even othertherapists.
Outside of the OT profession tounderstand.
So that was the beginning ofkind of my work with the OTPF.
(04:21):
And when I got my first positionand I was incorporating
hippotherapy.
My F one of my first tasks waslike, how am I going to
structure my treatment notes?
I had templates that othertherapists had used before me,
and they didn't really resonatewith me.
They were.
They felt to me to be a littlebit too site specific and not OT
(04:43):
specific enough.
And so that was one of the firstthings.
That I focused on was reworking.
What we might think of as thetraditional soap note or daily
documentation record.
Into something that was very OTcentric.
And that was really that nextfalling in love with the OTPF
and understanding what it couldbring forward for me.
(05:08):
And as I developed myself as aclinician, and then as I moved
into the role as director oftherapy services, then it became
important to create a field workexperience for students, whether
they were level one students,whether they were level two
students.
It's OT students, OTA studentsmaster's level doctoral level,
(05:29):
like whatever that was going tobe, that there was a structured
experience.
That as a clinician, especiallya busy clinician, I could rely
on again.
And again, and again.
And when I began thinking like,well, like where do I start with
this?
What is going to help students?
Get the information that theyneed.
(05:50):
That is not specific to mysetting.
And I thought that was reallyimportant is that.
As a student we're educatinggeneralists.
They need to be able to come outand apply the information in any
setting that they're going to.
So just because they're having aspecialty setting, fieldwork
placement.
I didn't want them to gainspecialty skills necessarily.
(06:13):
Of course, some students aregoing to go on and practice
incorporating hippotherapy ornature-based or aquatics.
Once they're done with theirfieldwork setting, they're going
to fall in love with it.
They're going to know howamazing it is.
But I wanted to make sure that Iwas contributing to the words,
their overall education andtowards their ability to pass
the boards.
(06:33):
And when I started to thinkabout, okay, this is my outcome
that I'm looking at.
And as I looked at more andmore.
Schools and what theirrequirements were for students.
I started to see how I couldmake that happen through the
OTPF.
And that was when I started tocreate handouts and frameworks
(06:56):
that would take students week byweek by week through their
fieldwork experience.
It was something that wasrepeatable.
So I didn't have to recreatesomething every time I was going
to have a new fieldwork student.
And that was important to me.
As a busy clinician, because Ienjoy taking students.
I enjoy what they bring to thetable.
(07:16):
But I also would find that inthe weeks leading up to having a
student.
I would feel a sense of likepanic.
If I didn't have somethingalready prepared, I wanted them
to come and feel welcome andfeel that I was ready for them
and know that they had animportant place with me as a
fieldwork student and being ableto create a framework that
(07:39):
students would go through.
Really gave me that ability tosay like, okay, I know I have
everything.
The framework piece down.
Once they come, I can plug theminto this.
It's going to help walk themthrough week by week of where
they need to be.
There's midterm qualifications,there's final qualifications.
(07:59):
All of it is aimed at being ageneralist.
That's going to have the skillsthat they need.
If this is a pediatric rotation,if this is a psychosocial
rotation, I can make sure thatI'm hitting those areas.
And the OTPF really was theobvious choice here because.
I could make small tweaks inhandouts or kind of like the
(08:22):
decision tree, if you'rethinking about what is a
decision tree.
And so if I was going to guidethem through okay, if we're
starting at the top, it wasfield work and then it's down
level one, level two.
Is it an OTR or an OTA student?
And then, following down fromthere, is it going to be an
eight week rotation, 10 week, 12week rotation?
(08:44):
And I would be able to thencraft which handouts to select.
So that way they could followthrough and being able to
present them with a folder or abinder on the first day of their
field work experiences is goingto take you from the beginning
of your experience withobservation forms, to the end of
your experience.
With creating a wholeintervention plan.
(09:07):
That was something that wasreally nice to do it once.
Set it up and then have it done.
And originally it started, likeI said, in a binder format now
it's online.
And so I just enrolled them intothe online course.
They have their weeklyassignments that they can access
online and they can get thosehandouts.
(09:27):
They can refer back to the OTPF.
I can have all my resourcematerial together in one place.
I can have links to a Googlefolder with research articles so
they can incorporate someevidence-based practice and it's
really become.
An all encompassing resource.
And when I think about includingOTPF, we can look at a lot of
(09:48):
different ways.
So for the first few weeks we'reworking on a lot of
observational skills.
And we're working on creating anoccupational profile.
So we can use the AOT, atemplate for the occupational
profile.
I can have them select a client,either that interests them or a
family that I know that's goingto be open to being interviewed,
(10:08):
to create an occupationalprofile.
And that can be an earlyassignment within the first few
weeks.
And then my observationaltemplates are based off of that
same language and wording.
From the OTPF and I can craftones again that are more
pediatric space or ones that aremore psychosocial based.
(10:29):
And they can be simple likecheckoff.
So we're checking off.
If that process skill is used.
And then a little box for aclinical observation.
So generally in the first fewweeks, I'd like to start with
those observation.
Tapes of skills, especially fora level one placement where they
are going to be doing mostlyobservation leading into an
(10:52):
intervention for me.
So that's how I like to craftmy.
Level one experiences.
I like them to do someobservation.
Show me what their clinicalobservations are.
Then start to give me feedbackon interventions that they're
watching, give me their clinicalreasoning on what they're seeing
and why they're seeing it.
And then as they're culminationproject, Is that they're
(11:14):
crafting an intervention.
Plan and running a whole sessionand they're running it right
there with me.
Or Ryan, if it's in the aquaticsand we can see them, work
through all that problem solvingpiece.
But.
Where I'm starting from is thatOTPF, I'm giving them that
(11:35):
framework.
That should be somewhat familiarto them.
So even though they're in areally novel setting, they have
something that's familiar tothem.
Now, when I'm looking at a leveltwo student, that's going to
look a little bit differentbecause their expected end point
is very, very different.
So their expected end point isthat they're treating my entire
(11:55):
caseload and.
I want to see definitely adifferent skill set from them
from beginning to midterm to endpoint.
And although there'll becompleting some of those same
observation during their firstweek and for our level twos,
that's not just going to be oneday for four hours on site.
(12:15):
That's going to be with us.
Throughout the whole week.
I can incorporate.
What they're doing with me, butI also found that I was able to
have them observe other types oftherapy so they could look at PT
sessions.
They could look at speech andlanguage sessions and they could
start to use the OTPF to look atthose same clients, but through
(12:36):
an OT lens.
And it allowed them to see whatwas a specialty area for PT.
And then what, how OT would lookat that client differently.
Same with speech and language.
They could look at S speechtherapy session, and then they.
I could say.
Okay.
From an OTs perspective, I'mseeing these other things.
So for our level two students atthat very beginning phase of
(12:59):
observation, starting to craftoccupational profiles, they're
doing this at a much faster ratebecause obviously they're there,
full-time and.
I want, I AI have a higherexpectation, right?
Because they've completed theireducation at this point.
They're not at some middle pointor beginning point for a level
(13:19):
one student, but also I want tosee them be able to come in and
implement the OTPF in action.
Much more quickly.
So I'm going to, with my leveltwo students, I'm going to have
them start completing thatoccupational therapy process as
it is described in the OTPF.
So they're going to be creatingthe occupational profile,
(13:39):
designing the assessment andevaluation phase, looking at
what their outcomes are going tobe.
And then if you listen to lastweek's episode, we talked really
about interventions,intervention planning from the
OTPF perspective.
And I'm going to have thoselevel two students start to
develop their interventionplans.
So each week they're adding onnew clients, they're still doing
(14:02):
some of those same observationswith.
Clients that are seen in PT orspeech, but now they're also
starting to think aboutco-treating.
So if they were going to beco-treating with another
discipline, that could be PT.
SLP or psych.
What would be be bringing to thetable that would be different?
(14:24):
And again, this is where theOTPF can be really fabulous in
highlighting the areas thatoccupational therapy differs
from the other disciplines andgives my students a foundation
to speak from.
As they work through theintervention plan phase, and
then the outcomes phase.
And some students are picking upclients usually by week two,
(14:50):
definitely by week three.
And then they're adding onclients every single week while
maintaining treatment plans,written treatment plans for each
client.
That they've already startedwith.
So as they get to the midpoint,they are treating, you know,
more than half the caseload atthat point, they're getting
ready to do some cocoa treats.
(15:11):
They're looking at someeducation and advocacy from the
OTPF and incorporating that in.
And it really gives them thisopportunity.
To see occupational therapy in aunique setting.
But with a very standardizedlens and.
(15:32):
I think from the feedback that Ihave gotten from students is
that it allows them tounderstand that although we may
be in a unique setting, like apool or a barn or out in the
middle of a forest, this skillsthat we're looking at from our
client's perspective are stillthe same.
The skills that we're using asan occupational therapy provider
(15:52):
are still the same.
And that grounding that the OTPFgives really allows students to
feel confident after their fieldwork experience.
Not that it was just a uniqueexperience that is different
from maybe what their classmatesgot, but that it's a unique
experience that is similar andis using the same skills that
(16:16):
they would use if they had beenplaced in a clinic.
Or a sensory gym or a school,they can then start to see how
those skills would translate.
And they don't so much feel likeI had this really cool
experience.
But I don't know what to do withit.
And when I talk to students whohave had a level one or level
(16:37):
two fieldwork experience withnot with me, incorporating
hippotherapy, but not with me ata different facility.
Sometimes that's a sense that Iget from them is that they
really, really enjoyed it.
But they struggled to connectwhat was happening with what
they were learning in anacademic setting.
And, I see this from students ina lot of different settings,
(16:58):
certainly not just my uniquesettings, but things like
homeless shelters or drop-incenters or family education
centers, or.
A daycare, right?
Any of those settings, studentscan sometimes struggle to make
that leap because they're justintegrating the language.
And those knowledge, keyknowledge concepts.
(17:19):
They're just starting tobeginning.
To begin to integrate themanyway.
And.
Without a way to connecteverything together, that book
learning.
You know what they're seeing inlecture, what they're being
taught with, what they're seeingin the field.
Sometimes that can be a reallybig leap to make.
And I've definitely, Idefinitely know that when you
(17:39):
get outside of what they expect,it's going to look like that can
be even harder.
And students who maybe arestruggling a little bit with
some of the fundamentalconcepts.
When they come out to a reallyunique setting, there's a lot of
things to problem solve.
There is a lot of things to betaking into consideration from
(18:00):
safety aspects to.
Working in a team environment toincorporating equine movement
thoughtfully or incorporatingthe aquatic environment
thoughtfully into the client'splan of care, into addressing
their goals.
That is a big ask.
And I have found that using theOTPF can really help students
(18:22):
answer that.
Much more.
Readily much more confidently.
And ultimately that's makingthem a better clinician when
they go to their next fieldworkexperience.
It's not in a silo.
It's something that they canapply in a number of different
settings.
So if you're interested in whatone of these handouts looks out,
(18:43):
looks like.
Certainly reach out to me.
I would love to share one of myfieldwork handouts with you, so
you can see how I'veincorporated the occupational
therapy practice framework intothe field work process.
Again, this could be for a levelone or level two student.
And giving them that referencepoint to start for them has been
great for the students.
(19:04):
And it has been great for me asa clinician.
Again, I don't have to reinventthe wheel.
Every single time that I'm goingto take on a new student.
Now I mostly work with level onestudents due to the amount of
time that I'm providingservices.
I am home with my kids.
Part-time so I am taking, again,a lot more level one students,
and it's just nice to know.
(19:26):
I have that framework availableto me.
I can go ahead, get themstarted.
And they have something to relyon.
I have something to rely on.
If you are taking fieldwork,setting students in your
setting, I certainly encourageyou to look to the OTPF for
guidance.
If you are going to be afieldwork educator, it's a great
way to align with educationalstandards.
(19:48):
It's a great way to have astandardized way of
communicating, documenting,assessing.
Through the whole OT process andhelping students make that
connection.
So when they go back to theiracademic setting at the end of
the semester, they really have away to connect with their peers.
They have a way to understandfilter and apply.
(20:09):
On the experience that they'vehad with you back into their
academic setting in that nextstep in preparing them towards
sitting for their boards andbecoming.
An occupational therapyprovider.
If any of this was helpful foryou today, I encourage you to go
ahead.
And like, or subscribe to thepodcast.
If you have a few extra minutes,if you could go ahead and leave
(20:30):
us a review that would greatlyhelp other occupational therapy
providers that are interested inhypnotherapy or aquatics, find
us.
And I hope you have a wonderfulweek.
We'll be meeting again next weekto wrap up occupational therapy
month.
Well, we couldn't celebrate.
April as occupational therapymonth.
If we didn't take a moment toacknowledge our OT and OTA
students.
And this week, I want to justtake a little bit of time to
talk about our students and youguessed it.
How I incorporate theoccupational therapy practice
framework.
(00:20):
Let's get started.
Hi, welcome to animals andaquatics MJ, your host today.
And I'm excited to talk aboutthe OTPF and how I incorporate
(00:44):
it into field work settings withstudents.
I find that it can be reallyhelpful in helping students
bridge something that hopefullythey're very familiar with from
their academic setting.
Into a new area of practice thatis definitely novel for all of
the students that I've taken.
Even students who have aninterest in nature based therapy
aquatics, or hippotherapydefinitely have a bit of a jump
(01:05):
to make when going from anacademic setting.
Into a field work experiencethat is as diverse as ours is.
So when I want to explain alittle bit.
Is in the academic setting.
Some of, you may already knowthat I'm a professor in an
occupational therapy assistantprogram.
(01:26):
I teach the pediatric lab in thefall and in the spring I teach
the psychosocial lecture andlab.
And I find it important toincorporate the OTPF in both
sections.
When I'm working with students,I find it gives them a really
good framework to start to putideas into practice.
It's a good reference point forany of the semesters that
(01:48):
they're in.
It doesn't have to be just thepsychosocial semester or just
the pediatric semester.
They're going to use it in.
Physical disabilities,geriatrics.
Basically from the beginning oftheir occupational therapy
education to the end of theiroccupational therapy education,
this document can go with themand assist them.
And one of the discussions thatactually just came up this week
(02:10):
with my current students.
Is that there are about halfwaya little more than halfway,
maybe two thirds of the waythrough their program at this
point.
And they're really feeling likethey need to be able to
incorporate more occupationaltherapy terminology when they're
describing what they're seeingin their field work settings
with clients.
And many of them have started toreference it.
(02:32):
They're going to go back to theOTPF and start to read through
it again, particularly theperformance skills.
The process skills, the clientfactors to help them with their
terminology.
They know what they're seeingnow.
They can make those clinicalobservations, but they're really
having a hard time with thelanguage to describe them.
(02:53):
Especially when they're talkingeither to other clinicians or
people at their field worksites.
So I'm happy to see that thestudents are starting to
incorporate the occupationaltherapy practice framework as a
reference point that will helpthem build some of the skills
that are really important forthem as they transition from a
(03:13):
student into a clinician.
And then they know that thatresource is always there for
them.
When I was a student, whichseems like a million years ago,
the OTPF was still part of ouroccupational therapy education.
And I remember finding it reallyhelpful as a guideline to
structure my thoughts.
And I think that's one of thereasons why I gravitated towards
(03:37):
it, because it was a morestructured way.
To organize myself.
And I knew that I was going intoa nontraditional setting.
My first two choices were mentalhealth or incorporating
hippotherapy.
So I knew I was going into.
A more nontraditional area.
And I knew that I was going toneed to be able to communicate
(03:58):
with other professionals in away that everybody would
understand.
I didn't want to create my ownthing.
That would be very difficult forother occupational therapy
providers or even othertherapists.
Outside of the OT profession tounderstand.
So that was the beginning ofkind of my work with the OTPF.
(04:21):
And when I got my first positionand I was incorporating
hippotherapy.
My F one of my first tasks waslike, how am I going to
structure my treatment notes?
I had templates that othertherapists had used before me,
and they didn't really resonatewith me.
They were.
They felt to me to be a littlebit too site specific and not OT
(04:43):
specific enough.
And so that was one of the firstthings.
That I focused on was reworking.
What we might think of as thetraditional soap note or daily
documentation record.
Into something that was very OTcentric.
And that was really that nextfalling in love with the OTPF
and understanding what it couldbring forward for me.
(05:08):
And as I developed myself as aclinician, and then as I moved
into the role as director oftherapy services, then it became
important to create a field workexperience for students, whether
they were level one students,whether they were level two
students.
It's OT students, OTA studentsmaster's level doctoral level,
(05:29):
like whatever that was going tobe, that there was a structured
experience.
That as a clinician, especiallya busy clinician, I could rely
on again.
And again, and again.
And when I began thinking like,well, like where do I start with
this?
What is going to help students?
Get the information that theyneed.
(05:50):
That is not specific to mysetting.
And I thought that was reallyimportant is that.
As a student we're educatinggeneralists.
They need to be able to come outand apply the information in any
setting that they're going to.
So just because they're having aspecialty setting, fieldwork
placement.
I didn't want them to gainspecialty skills necessarily.
(06:13):
Of course, some students aregoing to go on and practice
incorporating hippotherapy ornature-based or aquatics.
Once they're done with theirfieldwork setting, they're going
to fall in love with it.
They're going to know howamazing it is.
But I wanted to make sure that Iwas contributing to the words,
their overall education andtowards their ability to pass
the boards.
(06:33):
And when I started to thinkabout, okay, this is my outcome
that I'm looking at.
And as I looked at more andmore.
Schools and what theirrequirements were for students.
I started to see how I couldmake that happen through the
OTPF.
And that was when I started tocreate handouts and frameworks
(06:56):
that would take students week byweek by week through their
fieldwork experience.
It was something that wasrepeatable.
So I didn't have to recreatesomething every time I was going
to have a new fieldwork student.
And that was important to me.
As a busy clinician, because Ienjoy taking students.
I enjoy what they bring to thetable.
(07:16):
But I also would find that inthe weeks leading up to having a
student.
I would feel a sense of likepanic.
If I didn't have somethingalready prepared, I wanted them
to come and feel welcome andfeel that I was ready for them
and know that they had animportant place with me as a
fieldwork student and being ableto create a framework that
(07:39):
students would go through.
Really gave me that ability tosay like, okay, I know I have
everything.
The framework piece down.
Once they come, I can plug theminto this.
It's going to help walk themthrough week by week of where
they need to be.
There's midterm qualifications,there's final qualifications.
(07:59):
All of it is aimed at being ageneralist.
That's going to have the skillsthat they need.
If this is a pediatric rotation,if this is a psychosocial
rotation, I can make sure thatI'm hitting those areas.
And the OTPF really was theobvious choice here because.
I could make small tweaks inhandouts or kind of like the
(08:22):
decision tree, if you'rethinking about what is a
decision tree.
And so if I was going to guidethem through okay, if we're
starting at the top, it wasfield work and then it's down
level one, level two.
Is it an OTR or an OTA student?
And then, following down fromthere, is it going to be an
eight week rotation, 10 week, 12week rotation?
(08:44):
And I would be able to thencraft which handouts to select.
So that way they could followthrough and being able to
present them with a folder or abinder on the first day of their
field work experiences is goingto take you from the beginning
of your experience withobservation forms, to the end of
your experience.
With creating a wholeintervention plan.
(09:07):
That was something that wasreally nice to do it once.
Set it up and then have it done.
And originally it started, likeI said, in a binder format now
it's online.
And so I just enrolled them intothe online course.
They have their weeklyassignments that they can access
online and they can get thosehandouts.
(09:27):
They can refer back to the OTPF.
I can have all my resourcematerial together in one place.
I can have links to a Googlefolder with research articles so
they can incorporate someevidence-based practice and it's
really become.
An all encompassing resource.
And when I think about includingOTPF, we can look at a lot of
(09:48):
different ways.
So for the first few weeks we'reworking on a lot of
observational skills.
And we're working on creating anoccupational profile.
So we can use the AOT, atemplate for the occupational
profile.
I can have them select a client,either that interests them or a
family that I know that's goingto be open to being interviewed,
(10:08):
to create an occupationalprofile.
And that can be an earlyassignment within the first few
weeks.
And then my observationaltemplates are based off of that
same language and wording.
From the OTPF and I can craftones again that are more
pediatric space or ones that aremore psychosocial based.
(10:29):
And they can be simple likecheckoff.
So we're checking off.
If that process skill is used.
And then a little box for aclinical observation.
So generally in the first fewweeks, I'd like to start with
those observation.
Tapes of skills, especially fora level one placement where they
are going to be doing mostlyobservation leading into an
(10:52):
intervention for me.
So that's how I like to craftmy.
Level one experiences.
I like them to do someobservation.
Show me what their clinicalobservations are.
Then start to give me feedbackon interventions that they're
watching, give me their clinicalreasoning on what they're seeing
and why they're seeing it.
And then as they're culminationproject, Is that they're
(11:14):
crafting an intervention.
Plan and running a whole sessionand they're running it right
there with me.
Or Ryan, if it's in the aquaticsand we can see them, work
through all that problem solvingpiece.
But.
Where I'm starting from is thatOTPF, I'm giving them that
(11:35):
framework.
That should be somewhat familiarto them.
So even though they're in areally novel setting, they have
something that's familiar tothem.
Now, when I'm looking at a leveltwo student, that's going to
look a little bit differentbecause their expected end point
is very, very different.
So their expected end point isthat they're treating my entire
(11:55):
caseload and.
I want to see definitely adifferent skill set from them
from beginning to midterm to endpoint.
And although there'll becompleting some of those same
observation during their firstweek and for our level twos,
that's not just going to be oneday for four hours on site.
(12:15):
That's going to be with us.
Throughout the whole week.
I can incorporate.
What they're doing with me, butI also found that I was able to
have them observe other types oftherapy so they could look at PT
sessions.
They could look at speech andlanguage sessions and they could
start to use the OTPF to look atthose same clients, but through
(12:36):
an OT lens.
And it allowed them to see whatwas a specialty area for PT.
And then what, how OT would lookat that client differently.
Same with speech and language.
They could look at S speechtherapy session, and then they.
I could say.
Okay.
From an OTs perspective, I'mseeing these other things.
So for our level two students atthat very beginning phase of
(12:59):
observation, starting to craftoccupational profiles, they're
doing this at a much faster ratebecause obviously they're there,
full-time and.
I want, I AI have a higherexpectation, right?
Because they've completed theireducation at this point.
They're not at some middle pointor beginning point for a level
(13:19):
one student, but also I want tosee them be able to come in and
implement the OTPF in action.
Much more quickly.
So I'm going to, with my leveltwo students, I'm going to have
them start completing thatoccupational therapy process as
it is described in the OTPF.
So they're going to be creatingthe occupational profile,
(13:39):
designing the assessment andevaluation phase, looking at
what their outcomes are going tobe.
And then if you listen to lastweek's episode, we talked really
about interventions,intervention planning from the
OTPF perspective.
And I'm going to have thoselevel two students start to
develop their interventionplans.
So each week they're adding onnew clients, they're still doing
(14:02):
some of those same observationswith.
Clients that are seen in PT orspeech, but now they're also
starting to think aboutco-treating.
So if they were going to beco-treating with another
discipline, that could be PT.
SLP or psych.
What would be be bringing to thetable that would be different?
(14:24):
And again, this is where theOTPF can be really fabulous in
highlighting the areas thatoccupational therapy differs
from the other disciplines andgives my students a foundation
to speak from.
As they work through theintervention plan phase, and
then the outcomes phase.
And some students are picking upclients usually by week two,
(14:50):
definitely by week three.
And then they're adding onclients every single week while
maintaining treatment plans,written treatment plans for each
client.
That they've already startedwith.
So as they get to the midpoint,they are treating, you know,
more than half the caseload atthat point, they're getting
ready to do some cocoa treats.
(15:11):
They're looking at someeducation and advocacy from the
OTPF and incorporating that in.
And it really gives them thisopportunity.
To see occupational therapy in aunique setting.
But with a very standardizedlens and.
(15:32):
I think from the feedback that Ihave gotten from students is
that it allows them tounderstand that although we may
be in a unique setting, like apool or a barn or out in the
middle of a forest, this skillsthat we're looking at from our
client's perspective are stillthe same.
The skills that we're using asan occupational therapy provider
(15:52):
are still the same.
And that grounding that the OTPFgives really allows students to
feel confident after their fieldwork experience.
Not that it was just a uniqueexperience that is different
from maybe what their classmatesgot, but that it's a unique
experience that is similar andis using the same skills that
(16:16):
they would use if they had beenplaced in a clinic.
Or a sensory gym or a school,they can then start to see how
those skills would translate.
And they don't so much feel likeI had this really cool
experience.
But I don't know what to do withit.
And when I talk to students whohave had a level one or level
(16:37):
two fieldwork experience withnot with me, incorporating
hippotherapy, but not with me ata different facility.
Sometimes that's a sense that Iget from them is that they
really, really enjoyed it.
But they struggled to connectwhat was happening with what
they were learning in anacademic setting.
And, I see this from students ina lot of different settings,
(16:58):
certainly not just my uniquesettings, but things like
homeless shelters or drop-incenters or family education
centers, or.
A daycare, right?
Any of those settings, studentscan sometimes struggle to make
that leap because they're justintegrating the language.
And those knowledge, keyknowledge concepts.
(17:19):
They're just starting tobeginning.
To begin to integrate themanyway.
And.
Without a way to connecteverything together, that book
learning.
You know what they're seeing inlecture, what they're being
taught with, what they're seeingin the field.
Sometimes that can be a reallybig leap to make.
And I've definitely, Idefinitely know that when you
(17:39):
get outside of what they expect,it's going to look like that can
be even harder.
And students who maybe arestruggling a little bit with
some of the fundamentalconcepts.
When they come out to a reallyunique setting, there's a lot of
things to problem solve.
There is a lot of things to betaking into consideration from
(18:00):
safety aspects to.
Working in a team environment toincorporating equine movement
thoughtfully or incorporatingthe aquatic environment
thoughtfully into the client'splan of care, into addressing
their goals.
That is a big ask.
And I have found that using theOTPF can really help students
(18:22):
answer that.
Much more.
Readily much more confidently.
And ultimately that's makingthem a better clinician when
they go to their next fieldworkexperience.
It's not in a silo.
It's something that they canapply in a number of different
settings.
So if you're interested in whatone of these handouts looks out,
(18:43):
looks like.
Certainly reach out to me.
I would love to share one of myfieldwork handouts with you, so
you can see how I'veincorporated the occupational
therapy practice framework intothe field work process.
Again, this could be for a levelone or level two student.
And giving them that referencepoint to start for them has been
great for the students.
(19:04):
And it has been great for me asa clinician.
Again, I don't have to reinventthe wheel.
Every single time that I'm goingto take on a new student.
Now I mostly work with level onestudents due to the amount of
time that I'm providingservices.
I am home with my kids.
Part-time so I am taking, again,a lot more level one students,
and it's just nice to know.
(19:26):
I have that framework availableto me.
I can go ahead, get themstarted.
And they have something to relyon.
I have something to rely on.
If you are taking fieldwork,setting students in your
setting, I certainly encourageyou to look to the OTPF for
guidance.
If you are going to be afieldwork educator, it's a great
way to align with educationalstandards.
(19:48):
It's a great way to have astandardized way of
communicating, documenting,assessing.
Through the whole OT process andhelping students make that
connection.
So when they go back to theiracademic setting at the end of
the semester, they really have away to connect with their peers.
They have a way to understandfilter and apply.
(20:09):
On the experience that they'vehad with you back into their
academic setting in that nextstep in preparing them towards
sitting for their boards andbecoming.
An occupational therapyprovider.
If any of this was helpful foryou today, I encourage you to go
ahead.
And like, or subscribe to thepodcast.
If you have a few extra minutes,if you could go ahead and leave
(20:30):
us a review that would greatlyhelp other occupational therapy
providers that are interested inhypnotherapy or aquatics, find
us.
And I hope you have a wonderfulweek.
We'll be meeting again next weekto wrap up occupational therapy
month.
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