Preparing Occupational Therapy Students for the Complexities of Clinical Practice

Abstract

This paper examined the effect of a unique amalgam of adult learning methodologies near the end of the occupational therapy (OT) students’ didactic education as a means to enhance readiness for clinical practice. Results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis indicated that the use of standardized patients, in combination with a sequential, semistructured, and progressively challenging series of client cases, in an OT adult practice (intervention) course, improved the students’ self-perception of their level of comfort and skill on various foundational, yet essential, OT-related competencies.

Keywords

• OT Education
• Standardized Patients
• Case-Based Learning
• Clinical Reasoning
• Psychomotor Skills
• Fieldwork Preparation