Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*

3-6 July, 2002
The University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract

Community classrooms - Developing independent practitioners

Elizabeth Taylor, University of Alberta, Canada
Sharon Brintnell, University of Alberta, Canada

One of the current challenges in post secondary health education is to prepare entry-level practitioners capable of taking advantage of new opportunities resulting from changes in health funding. Sources of funding statistics for rehabilitation specialists' services in Canada note a significant increase in third party sources over more traditional salaried positions. Graduates are moving directly to roles of independent practitioner rather than employee. With this comes a need for a different skill set that is often not taught within the traditional classroom. The occupational therapy program at the University of Alberta has created and evaluated an educational model that allows students to function as independent practitioners under a service contract within an academic course. Eighty students follow a community service protocol with clients in either a health or wellness model. This outcome-oriented experience is embedded, and operationalized within a thirteen-week course. Ongoing feedback occurs using face-to-face interactions, classroom seminars or computer comments. As a "contracted" independent practitioners, students produce both a midterm and final reports using theoretical models to drive, practice and maintain therapists' logs as required by the virtual contractor. This guided learning experience promotes clinical reasoning and critical thinking beyond the usual paper and pencil case analysis. Discussion on the organizational structure, the clinical practice guidelines, and student outcomes will allow participants to identify adaptation, which could be used in academic environments of other health professionals.

Key words:
Independent practitioner; Community classroom; Education model

Objectives, outcomes and activities:
At the completion of the seminar, participants will be able to:

• describe an educational model for the development of practitioner skills;
• understand the process for development of this learning strategy for students; and
• identify how they can apply this strategy in their own curricula.

Elizabeth Taylor is an Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy at the University of Alberta, Canada. She teaches primarily in the areas of Psychosocial, Team Development and Management. She feels privileged to be part of the Health Development Team that was awarded the Alan Blizzard Award from the Society for Teaching and Higher Learning in Canada. She is also active in both provincial and national associations and recently received an Award of Merit for contributions to the profession.

Sharon Brintnell is the past chairman of the Department, the past president of the CAOT. She served on all of the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client Centred Practice task forces and a contributor author to Enabling Occupation. She is the recipient of professional awards at both the National and Provincial level and has been qualified in the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench seven times as an expert in occupational therapy and functional assessments.

Contact: Elizabeth Taylor, email: liz.taylor@ualberta.ca