Occupational Therapy News July 2020 | Page 42

FEATURE STUDENT EDUCATION
Capturing the bigger picture
through a virtual placement
Before the global COVID-19 pandemic hit, university tutor Margaret Spencer
and student and disabled activist Georgia Vine created a virtual role
emerging placement to tie blogging in with occupational therapy
During my paediatric placement in April 2019,
Margaret Spencer was the visiting university
tutor. She works part time at the university
and has her own professional supervision
business; supervising over 50 occupational therapists
nationally and internationally.
So when Margaret asked me what area of
occupational therapy I wanted to work in, I mentioned
that I quite liked the idea of tying blogging in with
occupational therapy. The seed was sown and
suggestions and solutions were investigated over the
summer to make this a reality.
This particular role emerging practice learning
opportunity enables students to broaden their
awareness of the context of health and social care by
participating in an emerging area of practice.
They are required to independently scope the area
and identify a potential role for occupational therapy.
The placement was planned and created over nine
months and started six weeks before the COVID-19
pandemic.
We knew that the goal was to raise awareness of
the importance of the online community, but we still
had to finalise how we would meet all the placement
competences.
My placement was part time, and took
place over 12-weeks between the end of
February and the end of May 2020.
As this was a virtual placement I
was planning to work from home
anyway, which has been a
bonus due to COVID-19.
As a disabled student I fatigue very easily; juggling
placement and assignments while managing my
cerebral palsy is very difficult. So, working from home
enables me to do work at my leisure and fits in a lot
better with my energy levels. I can also work in my chair
that is made especially for me to support my posture,
which helped massively, as I did not experience as
many aches and pains.
My experience helped me to explore the role of
online communities for people with disabilities; I used
the occupational therapy process to do this. I was able
to assess what the online community meant to people
while we were planning the placement, to enable me to
establish the focus of the placement.
My responses were very positive and it made me
realise that there was a need to raise awareness about
online communities in the occupational therapy world.
Online communities are important as they can
influence change and can help us to apply new
knowledge to enhance professional profiles (McKinstry
2019). However, there is a lack of opportunity for
occupational therapy students to enhance these skills
(McKinstry, 2019).
42 OTnews July 2020
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