Occupational Therapy News OTnews July 2019 | Page 39

STUDENT EDUCATION FEATURE Student reflections Ben reflected on the project rationale: ‘We saw the project as an opportunity to focus on a group of people who we believed would benefit from an occupational intervention; in this case, women who have been trafficked. ‘These are people that usually receive very little aftercare in regards to holistic therapies, and so we wanted to focus on their experiences and the effect this might have had on their identity and wellbeing. ‘The idea of identity pots was a way of encouraging personal exploration, and attempting to support individuals in reconfiguring their occupational identities – and their identities in general.’ Lisa said: ‘Being a part of this project and actually making the pots ourselves I was able to feel for myself the benefits and barriers. I realised how vulnerable I felt at first when I was thinking about my own identity and trying to communicate this through art. ‘I’m much more aware of how the people I may work with may feel in this position, and can think more deeply about strategies I may use if someone was finding it difficult to open up.’ Nathan reflected on shared learning and teamwork, and added: ‘This was a great project and worth the time spent on it. It allowed us as a group to work together through the sharing of ideas and workload. Working through our designed group gave valuable insight to the real life experiences of clients.’ Oonagh said: ‘I think we were all surprised about how much this group positively impacted on us. Initially, we found it difficult to be creative and found the prospect of the sessions quite daunting. ‘As we started to paper maché, everyone got involved, we put on some calming music and all reflected how relaxed we felt. For me personally, I found it to be a very mindful activity, which enabled me to explore my identity and how to portray this using creative means.’ In summary the creative projects are an extremely valuable learning experience for our third year students. They remind the students of the power of creativity and how this can be embedded into practice. It also encourages our students to think about innovative ideas that can be taken forward to expand the scope of occupational therapy practice. Di Tommaso et al (2019) used a qualitative research framework to explore occupational therapy educators’ experiences and perspectives on occupation- centred education, and what would strengthen and challenge its implementation. Eight educators from six Australian universities participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed three themes: ‘occupation is our framework’; ‘the balance between practice education and occupation-centred education’; and ‘changing the focus’. The authors identify that educators valued the ‘occupation for health’ philosophy, and broadly agreed that education should focus on providing an in-depth understanding and appreciation of occupation, but there were varied responses about how to teach these concepts. The authors suggest university educators should continue to innovate and develop occupation-focused curricula, and that university and practice educators should form positive partnerships for successful student education. Students were required to demonstrate their creation, describe and discuss their learning, reflections, implications for occupational therapy practice and the project’s potential as a business or social enterprise. Projects were scored based on the strength of their idea, how well students linked theory to their practice, and how well they developed their business plan. This year’s overall best project was designed by students Ada Jones, Ben Harding, Nathan Foulger, Matthew Pickup, Rebecca Evans, Lisa Brady and Oonagh Jordan. Their project was titled ‘Identity Pots’ and was a creative intervention focused on re- establishing occupational identity through engagement in an art project. The group was aimed at women who had experienced human trafficking. Reference Di Tommaso A, Wicks A, Scarvell J, Isbel S (2019) Uncovering educator perspectives of occupation- centred education in Australia: a qualitative study. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 66(2), 174–182. References Collins M, Harrison D, Mason R and Lowden A (2011) Innovation and creativity: exploring human occupation and professional development in student education. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(6): 304- 308 Creek J (2008) Occupational therapy and mental health (4th ed). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone European University Association (2007) Creativity in higher education: report on the EUA creativity project 2006-7. Brussels: EUA. Peruzza N and Kinsella EA (2010) Creative arts occupations in therapeutic practice: a review of the literature. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(6): 261-268 Rogaten J and Moneta GB (2016). Creativity in higher education: The use of creative cognition in studying. In: Moneta GB and Rogaten, J (eds). Psychology of Creativity: Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Processes. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Pub Inc, pp. 3-20 Schmid T (2004) Meanings of creativity within occupational therapy practice. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 51, 80-88 Emma Dudzinski, lecturer in occupational therapy and Sarah Drake, lecturer in occupational therapy and BSc Occupational Therapy Course Director, University of East Anglia, email: [email protected] OTnews July 2019 39