
Educational Perspectives: Integrating a Student Post-Stroke Clinic within a First-Year Occupational Therapy Kinesiology Course
Author(s) -
Mark Blanchard,
Barbara M. Doucet
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the internet journal of allied health sciences and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1540-580X
DOI - 10.46743/1540-580x/2020.1885
Subject(s) - kinesiology , occupational therapy , thematic analysis , intervention (counseling) , psychology , medical education , qualitative research , medicine , physical therapy , social science , psychiatry , sociology
Purpose: In many occupational therapy graduate programs, student experiences with actual patient evaluation and intervention typically occur following several semesters of didactic instruction. We explored the impact of an early immersive and reflective hands-on patient experience on student learning and clinical skill development. Method: Following participation in five task-specific occupational therapy clinical sessions that were embedded into an applied kinesiology course, students performed reflections on the experience. These reflections included thoughts on kinesiology course content and clinical skill development through patient sessions over the semester. Results: A qualitative thematic analysis of student reflections was conducted. Findings reflected themes of improvement in observation skills, intervention abilities and communication. Conclusion: Early reflective and immersive clinical experiences may be helpful in the reinforcement of course content and in the development of clinical skills of occupational therapy graduate students prior to full intervention content exposure.