The Critical Friend: Development of a Peer Supervision Training for a Student-run Occupational Therapy Clinic

Abstract

An occupational therapy program at a research institution in the Midwest offers a student-run outpatient stroke clinic to prepare learners for the student-to-clinician transition. Notably, the students practice peer supervision in which participants with roughly the same level of training monitor, evaluate, and support one another. This project details the development of The Critical Friend, an evidence-based peer supervision training program implemented in a student-run occupational therapy clinic. The ADDIE Model of Instructional Design, which classifies five phases of instruction implementation (analyze, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) was utilized to translate research knowledge into a learning deliverable. This paper focuses on the design, development, and implementation phases of The Critical Friend. In the design phase, data from a scoping review on peer supervision and a focus group with key stakeholders informed learning objectives and instructional strategies. In the development phase the Webinar Integration Tool was used to select a learning management system. In the implementation phase, The Critical Friend was embedded in the existent coursework associated with the student-run clinic in the form of three e-learning modules. The e-modules focused on feedback, guided discovery, and professionalism. Each provided a series of actionable steps for both supervisors and supervisees to effectively navigate a peer supervision relationship.

Keywords

• peer supervision
• occupational therapy
• experiential learning