Supporting Student's Active Role

There is no clear-cut right answer on how much independence to give (unless “it depends” counts as the right answer).   While we know students are at varying levels in their education and experience, we need to balance that with the learning curve that occurs over the two years of the program. 

When I think of givign aduce to educations, I think the best tip is to approach learning opportunties for your student with your OT brain.

By this, I mean: 

If I broke this client interaction into steps, which parts would be appropriate for my student to do independently?  This not only helps with identifying areas where the student can be involved, but also helps the student to not be overwhelmed with everything that can occur in a single OT interaction! For example,

• You interpret the assessment and develop the intervention, however the student carries it out (especially if these are interventions an aide would carry out).
• When you go into the home visit, have the student focus on the layout of the home and how it facilitates/presents barriers to function.
• After a client interaction, have the student come up with one issue that is important to address, the barriers/resources  to overcoming this issue and possible interventions for the future

If the student isn’t able to do _______ independently, would it still be safe if I was there as a “standby assist?”

• Have your student lead the initial interview or client education.  You can jump in if the student gets stuck

If the student isn’t able to do this independently in the “real world,” is there a simulated way for this skill to be developed?

• Can the student practice the assessment on a fellow student before completing it with a client? 
• If a chart note is too complex (or there isn’t time) for the student to write, can he/she write a practice chart note and then compare it to yours.

Some extra bonus tips that come to mind:

• When deciding which clients or tasks to share with your student, focus on the 5-6 “things” that make up 80% of your day and allow the student to take the lead.  This nurtures students to recognize patterns among your clients, build confidence, and competence.
• Allow your student to spend extra time to build a skill or technique if your setting allows. Our skills grew in efficieny with repeated practice and exposure; we can try to foster the same opportunties for our studnets. For example, protect time for your student to be with clients longer than you would usually schedule so that they can practice their interviewing and communication skills.  
• Be intentional about thinking outloud whenever you can. Basic has been voted “Placement I am most likely to lose my voice”, but being explicit about the reasoning that is going on in your head is a fabulous way for students to learn.

Lisa

Revised by Julie, 2024

 

 

 

CBFE Midterm Tips: Advanced (Level 3)

Here are some tips to help you with completing the midterm evaluation for Advanced Fieldwork: 

GET A HEAD START:

• Take time to review the evaluation and the minimum placement expectations that you have set for each competency to refresh your memory on areas you are evaluating for midterm. This will also help to target your observations and begin to gather examples of how your student is doing that you can use later to discuss.

• In addition to direct observation, consider other evaluation strategies such as:

• Talking through a client session with your student,

• Reviewing written documentation,

• Gathering perspectives of team members and OT colleagues. 

EVALUATION OF COMPETENCIES:

• Consider your student's performance in relation to:

• Your minimum placement expectations (where you expect your student to be at the end of Advanced fieldwork)

• CBFE competency descriptors  

• Use the comment section to provide examples of how your student is meeting expectations, strengths, and areas for improvement.

• *Determination of a pass or fail by the university is based on the average of the competency marks and comments at final.

• Please do not struggle with the electronic form! If you are having issues, you can use a paper copy and email us a scan of the document at the end of the placement. You can also email us at OTfieldwork@umanitoba and we will do our best to troubleshoot and assist you.

• Grading/Numerical Rating

• Rate your student on each competency using the drop-down arrow provided. 

• Please remember that for Advanced you are to score a maximum of 8 by final.

• A rating of 8 indicates mastery of Level 3 and ready to transition to practice although there may be some variation in scoring across competencies. Students do not need to have 8’s in all competencies in order to pass placement.

• If your student recieves and/or is anticipated to recieve a rating of 5 or less at midterm on any competency, please immediately contact Teresa Allison at Teresa.Allison@umanitoba.ca.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Review and evaluate each objective by placing a vertical line on The Learning Objective Rating Scale at the bottom of the page to quantify their progress in meeting their objective.

• Hover over the dot on the scale; a hand will appear to allow you to choose the rating.

• You can ask your student to copy and paste their learning objectives into your evaluation forms on the student-learning objective page. This will help provide context to your evaluation. 

• The student-learning objective page will primarily contain student information.  Feel free to use the “validation” column to provide feedback about your student’s progress with learning objectives. You may also use the comment section on the corresponding competency page.
  

• What if you need to edit your rating?

• Hover over the line above the dot you selected. Once the hand appears, and it is “sitting” on the line, you can click to delete.

• What if your student has more than one learning objective for the same competency? How do you provide a rating in this situation?

• In this case, you can provide a rating that captures an “overall picture” or an average of your student’s progress in meeting their learning objectives. 

•  Reminder:  Student learning objectives are not included in the overall score of the correspoding compentency and do not determine pass or fail.

BONUS TIP:  Consider emailing the evaluation to your student prior to your evaluation meeting to allow time to “digest” everything.

As always, please reach out if you have any question or concerns!

Teresa & Julie

CBFE Midterm Tips: Intermediate 2 (Level 2)

 Here are some tips to help you with completing the midterm evaluation for Intermediate 2 Fieldwork: 

GET A HEAD START:

• Take time to review the evaluation and the minimum placement expectations that you have set for each competency to refresh your memory on areas you are evaluating for midterm. This will also help to target your observations and begin to gather examples of how your student is doing that you can use later to discuss.

• In addition to direct observation, consider other evaluation strategies such as:

• Talking through a client session with your student,

• Reviewing written documentation,

• Gathering perspectives of team members and OT colleagues. 

EVALUATION OF COMPETENCIES:

• Consider your student's performance in relation to:

• Your minimum placement expectations (where you expect your student to be at the end of Intermediate 2 fieldwork)

• CBFE competency descriptors  

• Use the comment section to provide examples of how your student is meeting expectations, strengths, and areas for improvement.

• *Determination of a pass or fail by the university is based on the average of the competency marks and comments at final.

• Please do not struggle with the electronic form! If you are having issues, you can use a paper copy and email us a scan of the document at the end of the placement. You can also email us at OTfieldwork@umanitoba and we will do our best to troubleshoot and assist you.

• Grading/Numerical Rating

• Rate your student on each competency using the drop-down arrow provided. 

• Please remember that for Intermediate 2 you are to score a maximum of 6 by final.

• A rating of 6 indicates mastery of Level 2 and ready to transition to Level 3 (Advanced) although there may be some variation in scoring across competencies. Students do not need to have 6’s in all competencies in order to pass placement.

• Intermediate 1 & Intermediate 2 fieldwork both fall under Level 2 on the CBFE.

• If your student recieves and/or is anticipated to recieve a rating of 4 or less at midterm on any competency, please immediately contact Teresa Allison at Teresa.Allison@umanitoba.ca.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Review and evaluate each objective by placing a vertical line on The Learning Objective Rating Scale at the bottom of the page to quantify their progress in meeting their objective.

• Hover over the dot on the scale; a hand will appear to allow you to choose the rating.

• You can ask your student to copy and paste their learning objectives into your evaluation forms on the student-learning objective page. This will help provide context to your evaluation. 

• The student-learning objective page will primarily contain student information.  Feel free to use the “validation” column to provide feedback about your student’s progress with learning objectives. You may also use the comment section on the corresponding competency page.
  

• What if you need to edit your rating?

• Hover over the line above the dot you selected. Once the hand appears, and it is “sitting” on the line, you can click to delete.

• What if your student has more than one learning objective for the same competency? How do you provide a rating in this situation?

• In this case, you can provide a rating that captures an “overall picture” or an average of your student’s progress in meeting their learning objectives. 

• Your student may carry forward objectives not completed into academics or future placements. 
  

•  Reminder:  Student learning objectives are not included in the overall score of the correspoding compentency and do not determine pass or fail.

BONUS TIP:  Consider emailing the evaluation to your student prior to your evaluation meeting to allow time to “digest” everything.

As always, please reach out if you have any question or concerns!

Teresa & Julie

Goodbye for the Last Time

All placements must come to an end. 

After weeks of working closely with a client, who wouldn’t wonder - what happened to my client who I saw daily for therapy? What happened to my client who became tearful when they spoke about their fears? What happened to that equipment funding request I helped write? Your student’s genuine curiosity and concern could be endless but cannot be appeased as we must abide by strict legislation to protect personal information.

As a therapist, you have faced a variety of similar experiences where the end to a therapeutic, client relationship felt unfinished. Modelling ways to gain closure will support your student’s ability to cope as a clinician later.

So how can you, as fieldwork educators, facilitate a sense of closure for your student during placement?

Here are a few suggestions:

·      Remind your student to tell clients of their eventual departure with a specific end date to establish boundaries,

·     Protect time at the end of placement for your student to individually say goodbye to clients and suggest sharing: 

§  Something they have learned from the client,

§  Ways in which the client helped shape their professional growth,

§  How they have appreciated their work together,

§  Strict boundaries regarding communication moving forward,

§  How you, as the therapist, have been updated on what was being worked on and will continue to provide services.

·     Allow time to close your own student-educator relationship during the final evaluation as you would for a client (above),

·     Consider being open and honest about your own feelings and strategies you use to cope with lack of closure or difficult goodbyes as they occur in real-time during placement.

Goodbyes are hard but it is a hard we need to learn to cope with as therapists as one goodbye makes room for a hello with a new client. And if that’s not encouraging enough, remind your student of the timeless wisdom of Dr. Seuss - “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

Julie

NB: 'client' is being used to symbolize individual persons, patients/residents, caregivers/support systems, and communities.