"Learning through doing" - a caterpillar for fieldwork practice

Fieldwork practice in Croatian occupational therapy education is defined by the study curriculum which gives a rather general competences which students need to acquire. Lack of defined guidelines lives educators with a... [ view full abstract ]

Fieldwork practice in Croatian occupational therapy education is defined by the study curriculum which gives a rather general competences which students need to acquire. Lack of defined guidelines lives educators with a broader space for their creativity in developing approaches for implementation of fieldwork practice.

The authors of this paper will present an fieldwork practice approach, based on Model of Human Occupation and Ayres Sensory Integration theory. While using following approaches in regular practice with pediatric clients and their families, educators realized that this combination ensures a good framework for enablement of developing clinical professional roles in occupational therapy students. Authors recognized students as an opens systems, for whom they have provided “just right challenge” in “sensory enriched” environment which consequently resulted in presence of more “adaptive behavior” and evident emergence and development of occupational therapy competences.
Using PBL in Model of Human Occupation and Ayres Sensory Integration theory, occupational therapy students have undergone through a spiral process defined by Ayres and Kielhofner. Through graded participation in the occupational therapists roles, students developed the sense of competences and efficacy in clinical reasoning skills, recognizing process stages and influences focused them on relevance of the process of development as crucial for their professional competency and important for future CPD.
Qualitative student evaluation (n=40) provided support evidence for approach efficiency on student satisfaction and competency level.
Approach presented in this paper will be submitted to the Croatian chamber of healthcare professionals, for their approval as a form of fieldwork practice guidelines.