Occupational Therapy News July 2020

STUDENT EDUCATION FEATURE Impact In May, Jo Watson, RCOT assistant director – education and research, reported a ‘substantial backlog’ in placements, resulting in a growth for demand for placements (Watson 2020). Face-to-face practice placements are essential, but PEEPs can be considered as a meaningful and legitimate alternative when constructed using the PEEP fundamentals guidelines, and in liaison with RCOT to fulfil the learning and development standards. Appropriately organised PEEPs can help with the demands on placement capacity, while still adding purposeful and valuable learning for students. Another student said: ‘Under difficult circumstances this has been an excellent way to keep our learning path going.’ While a member of the academic staff stated: ‘This placement gave the students a good environment to explore and practise their assessment and professional reasoning, and to really get to grips with goal setting and prioritisation. It gave them real time practice with their communication skills.’ A solution to meet demand The virtual learning environment has the potential to provide a legitimate practice placement for students, when constructed in line with PEEP fundamentals guidelines. Liaison with RCOT to ensure that the learning and development standards are met is advisable. The PEEP model can be applied to established learning theory and pedagogy. The evaluation of the PEEP reported added value to the learning from the peer group process, compared to that usually gained on a traditional face-to-face placement. Peer enhanced e-placements offer a real solution to help with the placement capacity demand that is currently being experienced. References Clarke V and Braun V (2014) Thematic analysis. In AC Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of quality of life and wellbeing research (pp. 6626-6628). Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Marquez-Alvarez L, Calvo-Arenillas J, Talavera-Valverde M and Maruno- Millares P (2019) Professional reasoning in occupational therapy – a scoping review, Occupational Therapy International 2019; 2019:6238245. Published 2019 Nov 26. Doi:10.1155/2019/6238245 Oh J, Huh B and Kim M (2019) Effect of learning contracts in clinical paediatric nursing education on students’ outcomes: A research article. Nurse Education Today, 83 (December 2019). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.08.009 Parkinson S, Shenfield M, Reece K and Fisher J (2011) Enhancing professional reasoning through the use of evidence-based assessments, robust case formulations and measurable goals, British Journal of Occupational Therapy 74(3): 148-152 Royal College of Occupational Therapists (2020) Coronavirus (COVID019) Education providers. Available at: www.rcot.co.uk/coronaviruscovid-19-0 [accessed 4 June 2020] Salmon G (2011) E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge Watson J (2020) Practice placements crucial for sustaining the workforce supply pipeline. Available at: www.rcot.co.uk/news/practice-placementscrucial-sustaining-workforce-supply-pipeline [accessed 4 June 2020] Wilcock A (1998) Reflections on doing, being and becoming. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, 248-256 Unsworth C and Baker A (2016) A systematic review of professional reasoning literature in occupational therapy, British Journal of Occupational Therapy 79(1): 5-16 Zafran H (2020) A narrative phenomenological approach to transformational learning: lessons from occupational therapy reasoning in educational practice, American Journal of Occupational Therapy 2020; 74(1). Doi:10.5014/ajot.2020.033100 Dr Lisa Taylor, Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy and Associate Dean for Employability for the Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia. Acknowledgements: many thanks to Charlotte Flynn, Sarah Housden, Anne Killett, Angela Lee and Laura Read from the University of East Anglia occupational therapy academic team, for undertaking the case study academic lead or long arm supervisor roles during the PEEP © GettyImages/Visual Generation OTnews July 2020 41

Occupational Therapy News July 2020 | Page 41