WASHINGTONUNIVERSITYSCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PROGRAM IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

FIELDWORK MANUAL

First Year Students

For MSOT18 and OTD19 students

2016– 2017

FIELDWORK PERSONNEL

Academic Fieldwork Coordinator (AFC)

Jeanenne Dallas, MA, OTR/L, FAOTA (JD)

office number: 314-286-1623; Room 1521

Fieldwork Administrative Coordinator

Leise Amann (Leise)

office number: 314-286-1639; Room 1522

Assistant Director of Entry-Level Doctoral Degree Program

Stacy Smallfield, DrOT, OTR/L, BCG, FAOTA office number: 314-286-1109: Room 1524

FIELDWORK EDUCATION

Fieldwork education is a crucial part of professional preparation and is best integrated as a component of the curriculum design. Fieldwork experiences should be implemented and evaluated for their effectiveness by the educational institution. The experience should provide the student with the opportunity to carry out professional responsibilities under supervision of a qualified occupational therapy practitioner serving as a role model. The academic fieldwork coordinator is responsible for the program’s compliance with fieldwork education requirements. (ACOTE, C.1.0)

LEVEL I FIELDWORK

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE)2011 standardsfor occupational therapists states that:

The goal of Level I fieldwork is to introduce students to the fieldwork experience, to apply knowledge to practice, and to develop understanding of the needs of clients.

Level I fieldwork shall be integral to the program’s curriculum design and include experiences designed to enrich didactic coursework through directed observation and participation in selected aspects of the occupational therapy process (C.1.8).

Qualified personnel for supervised Level I fieldwork include, but are not limited to, occupational therapy practitioners initially certified nationally, psychologists, physician assistants, teachers, social workers, nurses and physical therapists (C.1.0)

The Academic Fieldwork Coordinator (AFWC) will ensure that at least one fieldwork experience (either Level I or Level II) has as its focus psychological and social factors that influence engagement in occupation (C.1.7).

FWI OBJECTIVES

Level I fieldwork objectives for students in the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine follow are listed below.

The student will (ACOTE 2011 standards are identified):

  1. Adhere to the AOTA Code of Ethics during fieldwork education (ACOTE B. 9.1).
  2. Develop personal and professional abilities, competencies, and behaviors on fieldwork.
  3. Demonstrate effective oral communication skills and therapeutic use of self on fieldwork with clients and health care professionals in group and individual settings (B.5.7)
  4. Develop client observational skills (B.4.1).
  5. Experience the occupational therapy process and the role of occupational therapy in the fieldwork setting (C.1.8).
  6. Identify the purpose of common medical equipment/supplies in the fieldwork setting.
  7. Perform medical record review, apply medical terminology, and maintain written records as required of fieldwork setting (B.4.3, B.4.10).
  8. Understand the occupations of individuals and apply the PEOP curriculum model in the fieldwork setting (B.2.11, C.1.8).
  9. Apply academic knowledge and practice skills learned in the classroom on fieldwork under the supervision of a trained professional (C.1.9).
  10. Identify personal knowledge and skills that need further development and direct further learning and growth (B.9.4).
  11. Begin to understand the role of other professionals on the team at fieldwork site
  12. Identify interest areas for further fieldwork, research, and practice.
  13. Demonstrate proficiency in medical terminology.

Additional Objectives for the MH FWI:

  1. Identify the psychosocial issues of the clients you interacted with at the site.

These may be:

  1. the symptoms of the person’s mental illness that are interfering with his/her

occupational performance

  1. the psychosocial issues the client is experiencing due to a physical issue he/she is experiencing
  1. Identify and discuss what you did as an OT student to address the psychosocial issues of the clients

Students complete Level I fieldwork experiences in a weeklong experience during the spring semester of the first year and the fall semester of the second year of the occupational therapy program. These experiences are designed to orient the student to various practice settings and the types of clients served by occupational therapy.At no time will FWI hours count towards FWII experiences.

Fieldwork I (FWI) and the

Independent Learning Experiences

Each student will be placed (by the FW Administrative Coordinator) in 2 FWI experiences, each being 40 hours long (typically concentrated during one week) during the spring semester of the 1st year and fall semester of the 2nd year.

Each student will plan another 40 hours of Independent LearningExperiencetime to be completed throughout the 5 semesters of classes. These hours must be completed and documentation turned in by April 1stof the 2nd year Spring semester. This pertains to both MS and OTD students. This is a requirement for OT5620 offered in the spring semester of the second year.

Per ACOTE (2011) standards, ALL experiences that are considered FWI must to be in sites that the WUOT Program has an active FW contract with. Since independent learning hours are not considered “fieldwork”, these experiences may be in sites that we do not have a contract. This is for the FW Coordinator and the FW Administrative Coordinator to monitor.

Per ACOTE (2011) standards, an OT supervisor for FWI is preferred, but not required.

FWI Requirements for the ASSIGNED FWI Experiences

40 hours of a Physical Disabilities/Rehabilitation experience

This requirement is intended to give all students exposure to a hospital or medicalsetting while on FWI. A weeklong (or extended) FWI I in this area of practice will be scheduled for students by the FW Assistant

A list of contract sites is available on the FW database (Filemaker Pro). Students will have training early in the first semester to learn how to access and navigate the database (see page 6 -7).

Options include: hospitals – pediatrics or adult (acute inpatient, inpatient rehab), skilled nursingfacilities, outpatient, home health, etc.

Ideally, the FW Administrative Coordinator will try to schedule this physical disability experience as the student’s first FWI in the spring of 1st year.

20hours minimum of a Psychosocial/Mental Health (MH) experience

There are two ways to fulfill this requirement:

  1. A weeklong FWI scheduled by the FW Administrative Coordinator – this can be scheduled in the spring of year 1 or fall of year 2. A weeklong FWI is 40 hours (this fulfills the 20 hour minimum requirement).
  2. IF this requirement is not completed as a weeklong FWI, the student will complete the required 20 hours in one of the semesters during the curriculum. The student will identify his/her preferences for a site from a list of given choices. The FW Administrative Coordinator will assign students to a contracted St Louis site that has agreed to take students for this experience. It will then be the student’s responsibility to complete the required hours by April 1st of the 2nd year spring semester.

A list of contracted sites for either of these options is available on the FW database. Students will have training early in the first semester to learn how to access and navigate the database. As with all FWI’s, there may not be an OT on the site. An OT supervisor is preferred, but not requiredfor FWI. Many MH sites do not have an OT on site; the student will be supervised by another professional.

Students will turn in FWI site/city preferences for the FW Administrative Coordinator to use when scheduling the FWI week-long experiences. The students will be oriented to this form and procedure early in the first semester of the curriculum.

A Professional Behaviors Document (PBD) evaluation completed by the supervisor of the student will be required for the assigned FWI experiences. Other assignments will be listed in the fieldwork course syllabus.

When completing the MH FWI hours, the PBD may not be required. Each student will complete a log of their hours and a reflection of the experience.

The required MH FWI has to be completed prior to passing the OT5620 class in the 2nd year spring semester.

Independent Learning Experience Hours

40 hours of experiential timeis required to be completed throughout the 5 semesters of classes.

  • These hours MUST BE completed by April 1stof the 2nd year Spring semester. There will be NO exceptions granted.
  • This is a requirement to be completed in order to pass the OT5620 course

Students will develop anIndependent LearningExperience Plan, including learning goals, at the beginning of the spring semester of the first year.

This plan will be documented on the Independent LearningExperience Plan and Record(page 31).

It will be the student’s responsibility to report on the status of the Independent Experience Learning Plan each semester.

  • See the form for details on how this will be turned in.
  • Students will be oriented to this process during the first semester of the curriculum.

Students will spend a minimum of 8 - 10 hours at the site in order to count the experience as anIndependent LearningExperience.

Some examples of experiences are volunteering in a community site for more hours over the minimum required by the Theory course or the 20 hours MH FWI requirement, quad rugby team, disabled sports associations, overnight camps counselor for camps focusing on specific populations with disabilities or special needs, personal attendant for someone who is disabled, etc. Overnight camps may count for all the 40 hours if approved on an individual basis by the AFC. Some paid work may count towards the 40 hours if approved on an individual basis by the AFC, typically paid work that is approved is caregiving positions.

Approval of the Independent Learning Experience Plans

Students will complete their 1st year Independent LearningExperience Plan at the beginning of the spring semester in the OT5610 FW course.

It is recommended to talk to the advisor or lab chair for guidance or ideas, but this is NOT required.

There will be a due date set by the AFC– Refer to the OT5610 syllabus

Students will return the completed Independent LearningExperiencePlan and Record form to the FW Administrative Coordinator; the Academic FW Coordinator (AFC) will review the plan and will bring any concerns to the attention of the student.

The FW Coordinator will have final approval authority for all Independent Learning Plans. Questions from students should be directed to the AFC.

After the AFC has approved the Independent Learning Experiences Plan, the plan will be returned to the student to refer to and use at the end of the planned semester to record his/her experiences. These plans may be adjusted as needed during the curriculum.

Documentation of the Independent Learning Experiences

Students will record the time spent in independent learning activities using the Extended Fieldwork Level I and Independent Learning Experiences Tracking Grid(see page 18). It is recommended to use one form per site (if at multiple places).

The site “supervisor” will sign to confirm that the student completed the hours. The AFC may allow forms to be turned in without the signature if the supervisor is difficult to locate or not realistic to get a signature.

The student will write a short statement to describe what was done at the site for each visit.

The student is required to write a short (1 page max) self-reflection paper describing how the

experience met (or did not) the goals that the studenthoped to accomplish.

The self-reflection and the tracking form are to be turned in to the FW Administrative Coordinator. The forms will be due towards the end of the summer session so the FW Administrative Assistant can make note of the students’ progress towards achieving the 40 required hours.

LEVEL I FIELDWORK SITE SELECTIONS

Site selection for the two one-week placements:

Washington University Program in OT has contracts with over 400 fieldwork sites around the country. Sites include, but are not limited to hospitals, community agencies, schools, private practices and outpatient programs. The Program in OT is NOT seeking new Level I or IIfieldwork sites at this time; students must pick from the sites available.

Accessing FW Information

It is best to use Internet Explorer to access the FW information

From WUOT webpage (

Click on Education/Resources/For Current Students;

Log onto Citrix “ ACCOUNTS\ your WUSTL KEY and password.

Launch the Desktop…you will then see desktop icons for various resources

Click on the Computer icon to access OT Depts. Then click on the Student FOLDER…there will be many folders there….

Click on Fieldwork the FW folder will be where you can find information about FW in general. This is where the AFC will “file” away information that students need.

Click on FW Data Forms…each state will have a folder.

A Fieldwork Data Form is included in these folders, along with other information on the site. The Fieldwork Data Form describes the level of experience of the supervising therapists, types of clients served, models of practice, and methods of intervention. Students should review the information and search the internet for other information about the site.

THERE MIGHT BE CHANGES TO THIS SYSTEM…ALL STUDENTS WILL BE ORIENTED TO CHANGES ON OCT. 5TH

Instructions for Accessing the Fieldwork Database

Go to:

Click on: Education; Click on Resources; For Current Students

Click on Citrix

If this link does not work, try this:

Log onto Citrixby typing in ACCOUNTS\ your WUSTL Key and password.

Launch the Desktop…you will then see desktop icons

Click on the “Compass Access” Internet Explorer Shortcut / icon

Click on Favorites at the top menu

Click on “FileMaker Pro – FIELDWORK_2015” to open the program

Log on:

Account Name: Student

Password: Explore1

*IF you have trouble accessing File Maker Pro through Citrix, you can try this link: You will then click on FIELDWORK_2015

The Fieldwork Student Menu Screen will open up.

  1. For current reservations: click on the Level I 2016/2017 button or other pertinent field that you want to check.

To review past reservations: click on Level I for prior years

  1. To find a specific site by site name, city or state
  • Go to the magnifying glass at the left / top of the screen (Find Mode)
  • The fields on the screen will disappear
  • Move the cursor to the field you wish to search, i.e. city, state, practice area
  • Click on that field
  • Type in the site name, city or state (whatever the field is that you are searching
  • Move the cursor to the left of the screen and click on the “Perform Find” button
  • Your search will finish in a moment or two. (You will know how many “hits” you have by the number on the left side of your screen, stated “Found Set”)
  1. To sort through your “found” files
  • Find the notebook icon on the left or top side of the screen (with arrows)
  • Click on the right / left arrows to scroll through the found set.
  1. To find other information, follow the directions above and type in the correct field the information you are looking for. For example: under benefits/housing, type “>0” and “Perform Find” and all sites with information regarding housing will be found.
  1. You can search for specific treatment areas. Abbreviations for treatment areas are found on the page for LEVEL II. Many treatment areas might be available at a site, but that does not mean that they are all available for FW. We will have to ask for specific treatment areas.
  1. To find First Come First Serve sites, follow the directions above and type in FCFS in the COMMENTS field. (This will be explained during the fall semester of first year).
  1. Notation explanations:

“00”…we have already asked and they said NO, we will not ask again

“0”….they sent in a form stating they do not want a student for that quarter. We still ask

them but will probably be turned down!

No number or an “X”….we will ask for a spot

A number, i.e. “1” “2”….they gave us a reservation for that many students. IF there is a

name or initials (or XX) by the number, then the spot has been given to a student.

  1. REMINDER: look at the bottom of the screen to see if Level I or Level II is checked. IF Level III is the only box checked…that is NOT an OT FW site, it is a Doctorate Doctoral Experiential Component only site!
  1. STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CONTACT ANY FW SITE DIRECTLY!

LEVEL I FIELDWORK POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

The Program makes arrangements for fieldwork placements with the designated contact staff of each fieldwork site. An information packet including fieldwork objectives, student health record, student assignments, procedures, evaluation forms and handouts related to objectives is forwarded to the Fieldwork Educator at the site.

In the FW class in the spring semester of the first year students are oriented to fieldwork objectives, procedures, and related protocols. Students are instructed to contact their Fieldwork Level I Educator (after the placement has been made) to confirm pre-requisites, arrangements regarding schedules, location, expected attire, etc.

PLACEMENT POLICY

The Program in Occupational Therapy will provide the student with fieldwork experiences in settings that have been deemed appropriate for placement and that have expressed a willingness to fulfill the responsibilities for Level I Fieldwork supervision. Students will only be placed in sites that have a signed Affiliation Agreement (contract) with Washington University.

SITE SELECTION POLICY

Every effort will be made to offer students exposure to different types of clients in a variety of practice settings. This is in effort to assist the student in achieving a level of comfort and to integrate knowledge and skills effectively.

Students identify and rank their top three areas of interest for practice or pick their top four sites and geographic areas for each FWI on a FW Preference Sheet distributed to the students mid to late fall for the spring FWI and in late summer for the fall FWI. The form must be turned in on time or the student will forfeit the right to indicate a choice for the semester.

RESERVATION REQUESTS

Students are NOT to contact a site requesting a placement for fieldwork Level I or Level II unless given permission by the AFC.

If a student makes a direct request to a specific site for a personal placementthrough any means without permission, that site will no longer be an option for that student.

FWI REQUIREMENTS