Virtual recreation therapy internship during the COVID-19 pandemic: A programmatic review

Abstract

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, academic-, healthcare-, and community-based recreation therapy (RT) programs have been creative in how to help students progress in their curriculum and complete their capstone fieldwork experiences through remote means. This article reports one university’s RT program’s development, implementation, and evaluation of a virtual internship, where the university provided both academic and agency supervision that met the requirements of national and state credentialing bodies as well as RT accreditation standards. Evaluation data from students and clients who received RT services are summarized, and implications for other similar programs are reported.