Interprofessional Education: Theoretical and Practical Considerations for Occupational Therapy Educators

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an integral part of occupational therapy education as programs across the United States incorporate IPE into existing courses and develop new, innovative curricula. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Commission on Education (COE) proposed in its 2015 position paper on IPE in occupational therapy curricula, that IPE is imperative for effective and ethical practice in today’s healthcare environment. Through participation in a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning program focusing on IPE, the authors examined broad constructs and practical implementation of IPE in occupational therapy education. As occupational therapy educators explore opportunities to collaborate with a diverse range of professions, this article provides information about key conceptual frameworks, approaches for faculty training and development, and methods for evaluating IPE outcomes

The Use of Mentored Inquiry Communities to Foster Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Outcomes of the American Occupational Therapy Association SoTL Program (2007-2017)

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is recognized in Boyer’s model, along with discovery, integration, and application, as one of four essential scholarships and is the systematic study of teaching and learning. As such, in 2007, the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF), and later the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), supported the development of a SoTL mentorship program in an effort to foster SoTL within the discipline of occupational therapy. This mixed-methods study describes AOTA SoTL Program outcomes across ten years, 2007-2017, gathered via survey of past program mentee (n = 50) and mentor (n = 12) participants. Results suggest that mentored inquiry communities are a useful approach to fostering SoTL collaborations. In the future, the AOTA SoTL Program and similar disciplinary-specific SoTL programs should consider additional strategies for supporting mentee participants to completion with their projects

Exploring first semester allied health students’ transition to graduate school through the lens of Occupational Adaptation

The purpose of the study was to examine experiences of students transitioning into graduate allied health programs within a public university in the United States. Researchers assessed students’ occupational adaptation as well as factors that facilitated and inhibited their transition. Researchers collected data using the Relative Mastery Scale (RMS) (George-Paschal, Krusen, & Fan, 2022) and a researcher-developed transition survey. Participants included 129 students from three allied-health professions. Researchers conducted a mixed ANOVA to explore differences in RMS ratings across three disciplines. There was a statistically significant increase in RMS ratings over time for all disciplines and statistically significant differences between disciplines for some time periods. The top five facilitating and inhibiting factors are presented for each discipline. The study contributes to the literature through use of a person-centered approach to understand students’ state and process of adaptation over time