The Occupational Therapy Examination and Practice Preparation (OTepp) Program: Development, Implementation and Evaluation of an Educational Program for Internationally-Educated Occupational Therapists

This paper provides a chronological overview of the development, implementation, and evaluation of an educational initiative aimed at ensuring internationally-educated occupational therapists are prepared to enter practice in their new country, Canada. The three major phases of the program’s 12-year evolution are described, to distill the key lessons learned at each phase. Data related to the demographics of participants, program content, results of the national examination, registration, and employment outcomes are included. An enhanced understanding of the transition experience of internationally educated occupational therapists provides a strong foundation from which to support internationally-educated colleagues and strengthen the occupational therapy profession

Symptom Prevalence in Lung and Colorectal Cancer Patients

CONTEXT: Relatively few data are available about symptoms among cancer patients. OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence and severity of symptoms among a large, representative cohort of newly diagnosed cancer patients. METHODS: We collected survey data about symptoms (pain, fatigue, depression, nausea/vomiting, cough, dyspnea, diarrhea) from 5422 patients with incident lung and colorectal cancer from the diverse, nationally representative Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORs) Consortium cohort. We described the prevalence of any symptoms and moderate/severe symptoms approximately four to six months following diagnosis. We used logistic regression to identify patient and clinical characteristics associated with symptoms, and calculated adjusted proportions of patients with symptoms. RESULTS: In total, 5067 (93.5%) patients reported at least one symptom in the four weeks before their survey, with 51% reporting at least one moderate/severe symptom. Lung cancer patients reported more symptoms than colorectal cancer patients. Patients who received treatment or had more comorbidities were more likely to report symptoms. For example, after adjustment, patients who received chemotherapy during the six weeks before the survey were more likely than others to report at least one symptom (97.3% vs. 90.8%, P<0.001), and at least one moderate/severe symptom (56.8% vs. 46.2%, P<0.001). After adjustment, early vs. late stage patients did not differ in reports of at least one symptom (93.6% vs. 93.4%, P=0.853) and differed only slightly in reports of at least one moderate/severe symptom (53.3% vs. 49.6%, P=0.009). CONCLUSION: Most recently diagnosed lung and colorectal cancer patients have cancer-related symptoms regardless of stage, and more than half have at least one moderate/severe symptom