Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Educator Practices and Preferences in Clinical Education

The shortage of clinical education fieldwork sites coupled with a concern over the quality of the required fieldwork experience poses an unintended outcome for the recent changes in the health care system and an increasing number of occupational therapy students. While the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) issues standards for fieldwork education, the quality of the experience is known to vary. The present study employed a mixed methods concurrent nested design with a quantitative online survey alongside qualitative individual semi-structured online interviews to examine the practices and preferences of fieldwork educators in Pennsylvania ACOTE accredited programs. From the 49 quantitative online survey participants, 10 practices and preferences considered important when supervising fieldwork students emerged. Another five themes related to a quality fieldwork experience were garnered from the six qualitative semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that fieldwork educators understand the value of clinical education and intend to continue to supervise students in the future. However, while fieldwork educators value their role as an educator, they often lack the time and resources necessary to feel effective. Therefore, future research into resource use and ways in which academic programs and professional associations can support fieldwork educators is necessary

Culture Shock: Transitioning from Clinical Practice to Educator

Transitioning from doctoral preparation to the academy is a stressor for most new faculty, particularly among academicians in the medical and health professions where role strain may include clinical responsibilities as part of faculty load. The proliferation of clinical doctorates and terminal clinical allied health degrees has increased the need for both traditionally trained educators, but also faculty with clinical doctorates or terminal clinical degrees (CDF) to augment the curriculum. CDF may not have the background in academia typically acculturated in a traditional doctoral degree. A lack of socialization during clinical doctoral preparation may lead CDF to develop unrealistic expectations regarding faculty collegiality, research and responsibility. Socialization is necessary to orient new faculty, but may be compounded with CDF who lack orientation to the academy regarding classroom management, scholarship, institutional hierarchy and general faculty expectations. A more extensive orientation to teaching, service, and scholarship as well as transitional issues like time management and expectations should be added to mentorship and orientation for CDF hired for health care professions educational programs. Challenges for CDF are most often related to problems decoding expectations of the organization, learning to budget time and creating relationships with colleagues. CDF need remediation to overcome the culture shock associated with the transition from practice to the academy. Traditional mentorship and socialization models entail mature faculty who gift their time and expertise in a one-on-one or small group sessions. CDF orientation may need to follow a more formalized plan rather than traditional mentorship philosophies and for an extended period of time (1-2 years) to ensure a successful transition. This manuscript provides a reorganization of common concepts in the mentorship literature to help administrators of health care profession education to develop CDF and junior faculty

Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Educator Practices and Preferences in Clinical Education

The shortage of clinical education fieldwork sites coupled with a concern over the quality of the required fieldwork experience poses an unintended outcome for the recent changes in the health care system and an increasing number of occupational therapy students. While the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) issues standards for fieldwork education, the quality of the experience is known to vary. The present study employed a mixed methods concurrent nested design with a quantitative online survey alongside qualitative individual semi-structured online interviews to examine the practices and preferences of fieldwork educators in Pennsylvania ACOTE accredited programs. From the 49 quantitative online survey participants, 10 practices and preferences considered important when supervising fieldwork students emerged. Another five themes related to a quality fieldwork experience were garnered from the six qualitative semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that fieldwork educators understand the value of clinical education and intend to continue to supervise students in the future. However, while fieldwork educators value their role as an educator, they often lack the time and resources necessary to feel effective. Therefore, future research into resource use and ways in which academic programs and professional associations can support fieldwork educators is necessary