The Development of a Role-Emerging Fieldwork Placement in a Homeless Shelter

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate student learning outcomes of a role-emerging fieldwork Level II placement in a local homeless shelter. A role-emerging fieldwork placement denotes any placement in which there is not an identified occupational therapy program or no on-site occupational therapy (OT) supervisor. The project ran from January through June 2017 at a local homeless shelter with 1 Masters of Occupational Therapy (MOT) student from a local university completing their first Level II fieldwork rotation from January through March, followed by 2 MOT students completing their second rotation from April through June. Fieldwork supervision was provided by an off-site fieldwork educator to meet the minimum Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) standard of 8 hours per week of direct supervision. Student experience was evaluated using the Fieldwork Experience Assessment Tool (FEAT) after the first week of the rotation, at midterm, and during the final week. Students reported decreased stigma towards the population, increased skills in occupational therapy practice, and improved confidence in their clinical decision making. Role-emerging fieldwork placements can provide a productive learning opportunity for selected students to explore the occupational therapy role in nontraditional settings. This paper will describe the creation of the role-emerging fieldwork project, development of student-run occupational therapy programming in a homeless shelter, student feedback regarding progress towards learning objectives, and describe student attitudes towards role-emerging fieldwork placements.

“Perceptions, expectations and satisfaction levels of occupational therapy students prior to and after practice placement and comparison of practice placement models”

“…The increase in scores over time in students’ professional skills was higher than that of their personal skills. These results support the assumption that the practice placement experience in and of itself influences students’ perceptions of their skills, particularly their professional skills [1, 12, 26, 38]. Additionally, the results indicated significantly lower scores regarding professional skills of students in the first placement level, compared with other placements levels.…”

“…These results can be explained by the fact that the focus in a role-emerging placement is development of community-based occupational therapy programs [3]. Therefore, students who participate in a role-emerging placement may have more opportunity to explore, establish, and expand roles in the community [28, 38, 41].…”

Increasing Self-Efficacy through Role Emerging Placements: Implications for Occupational Therapy Experiential Learning

“…When structured to meet the requirements of the ACOTE standards, role emerging FW is considered equivalent to traditional placements in meeting the needs of the academic program to link theory to practice. Similar to traditional placements, role emerging FW provides opportunities for a variety of contacts with clients; effective communication between students, supervisors and staff; and exposure to service delivery (Bossers et al, 1997;Fisher & Savin-Baden, 2002;Overton, Clark, & Thomas, 2009;Thew et al, 2011;Tyminski, 2018).…”

“…ACOTE standards also challenge occupational therapy education programs to expose students to a variety of clients across the lifespan and to a variety of settings. Current research suggests that students who completed a Level II FW in a role emerging setting experienced increased skills in occupational therapy practice, improved confidence in their clinical decision making, and demonstrated interest in pursuing employment in role emerging settings after graduation (Tyminski, 2018). Given the rising number of occupational therapy students and education programs, and a national shortage of practice placements, developing more role emerging FW experiences may be a viable option (Roberts & Simon, 2012).…”

Student and supervisor perspectives on the effectiveness of community-based placements for occupational therapy students

“…This may better prepare students to evolve into more diverse and holistic therapists in settings where the role of occupational therapy is undefined [ 23 ]. Role-emerging placements may have advantages, since they can enrich students’ professional and personal growth and development, and allow students to explore, establish, and expand roles in the community [ 17 , 24 , 25 ]. This may be an opportunity where students can apply academic coursework and resources to address challenges facing communities, such as community needs, health-care disparities, and civic engagement [ 26 ].…”