Occupational Therapy on College Campuses: Facilitating Student Success Through Occupation

Purpose: To explore how occupational therapy services fit into a supported education model on college campuses. Rationale: College students present with many strengths and challenges in college settings. There are limited services for young adults to succeed in college and students with various diagnoses face challenges in the areas of time management, organization, academic skills, and in social areas of college (Orentlicher, & Olson, 2010; Rogers, Kash-MacDonald, Bruker, & Maru, 2010). Higher education is a role emerging area for occupational therapists, and there are some pioneering occupational therapists who have discovered multiple ways to provide services to students who are challenged by aspects of college life. Objectives: Describe the history and current practice of supported education and its fit within the domain of OT. Describe a variety of OT supported education programmes Identify aspects of the supported education programmes that participants could apply to their college or practice setting Format: This workshop will begin by describing the history and models of supported education. The presenters will define six examples of OT programmes on college campuses. Finally, the presenters will encourage participants to share ideas and identify aspects of the various programs that they could apply to their college or practice setting

Experiences of overseas nurse educators teaching in New Zealand

Background: Globalisation and a shortage of registered nurses in New Zealand have caused an increase in the number of overseas qualified registered nurses and nurse educators migrating to New Zealand. This reflects the overall international context. If overseas qualified nurse educators are to work optimally, providing the maximum benefit for students, their experiences need to be examined in order to identify potential issues and provide support. Objectives: To investigate the experiences of overseas qualified nurse educators teaching in New Zealand nursing schools and relate this to the international context. Design: A qualitative study using van Manen's hermeneutic approach to phenomenology. Methods: The lived experiences of 17 overseas qualified nurse educators were explored through in-depth, semi –structured individual interviews. Results: The study revealed that overseas qualified nurse educators initially experienced a sense of non-belonging in New Zealand, while their separation from their homeland and migration to a new country resulted in a sense of disorientation. Integration was the preferred method of adaptation to New Zealand among the study participants. However, they wanted to choose which aspects of the new culture they would adopt and to what extent they would adapt. Conclusion: The initial phase of adaptation was a difficult process for the majority of participants, however, it was found that the adaptation process was easier for the participants who were actively engaging in New Zealand society. Understanding and improving the experiences of overseas qualified nurse educators will enable nursing students to receive maximum educational benefits wherever they train in the world. © 201