“What I’d tell a first time educator” Advice from OTs with experience

I like to sit down with students on their first day and talk about:

the goals they have,

what they hope to learn,

what they are interested in

and most importantly what they know about how they best learn and communicate and go from there.  

I have found I have had to change my approach with students, some are “immediately following de-briefers”, some are “take some time to think then debriefers”, some are “list people”, some are “single task oriented”.  If I get that from them then we can work more effectively and efficiently together.

One thing I try to do is seek out feedback from my student:

·         what does he/she feel comfortable taking on?

·         what does he/she want more opportunities to observe?

·         does he/she feel like she is getting enough feedback? The right kind of feedback?

I also make a point of using the eval package to plan out our goals for the following week of placement (e.g., observing a specific type of assessment, doing an initial interview, planning and running a group therapy session, writing a discharge summary, etc.). This keeps us on track and is an opportunity for my student to highlight things he/she is particularly interested in or wanting to work on.

I would say that my process has always been to give them a good introduction to the environment and to the key people that they would need to rely on for information.  Then to observe me in various interactions, practice them with each other (if in a collaborative placement), be observed interacting with clients, then doing it independently and talking it about it later.

I really like to try and be collaborative with students and clearly outline expectations or reasonable progressions for the goals they are trying to achieve.

I tell all my students that I feel the first (and perhaps the most important) step, with any patient, is to establish a rapport with the patient.  Nothing can move forward without such rapport.

Be open to feedback, you likely will learn more from your student then you think and take the experience as the gift it is.