Student education
Kelsey Brooker , Sarah Harding , Stuart Heaton and Audrey Yong evaluate an integrated diverse placement for people with complex needs , from the different perspectives of the students , long-arm educator and university practice learning leader involved .
Student education
Feature
A diverse practice placement evaluation
Kelsey Brooker , Sarah Harding , Stuart Heaton and Audrey Yong evaluate an integrated diverse placement for people with complex needs , from the different perspectives of the students , long-arm educator and university practice learning leader involved .
O
ccupational therapy students from the University of Brighton all undertake a diverse placement as part of their course , which takes place in new areas of practice to promote the role of occupational therapy where it does not already formally exist .
It gives students a chance to offer an occupational perspective of health and wellbeing to service users and staff and during this placement , students are supported by an on-site educator , who is usually not an occupational therapist , and clinically by an experienced longarm practice educator .
In 2022 , one of the diverse placements on offer was in a day centre , which had recently integrated two existing services that provided day support to adults with a learning disability and people living with dementia , Parkinson ’ s and acquired brain injuries .
We placed two MSc occupational therapy preregistration students , Kelsey Brooker and Sarah Harding , in this setting to promote the role of occupational therapy and bring an occupational perspective of health and wellbeing to the service-users and staff team .
Kelsey and Sarah had experience from previous roles working with people with learning disabilities and people with dementia respectively , but were unsure if they could use the knowledge and experience gained from this in the placement setting .
The student experience
When we first began our placement , it quickly became clear that the service had recently undergone many changes the staff and clients were still adjusting to . The service was housed in a new , purpose-built building , however it felt as though it had not been designed to accommodate the diverse needs of its users .
Due to these changes , we felt that there were a number of aspects we could consider that would help to promote the importance and value of occupational therapy . These areas included the environment , engagement in activities , managing the clients ’ varied and complex needs , and also staff ’ s understanding and confidence in supporting people with dementia .
The environment was a crucial focus for us initially , especially as we observed clients struggling to navigate their way around the building and relying on staff .
We completed an environment assessment tool ( Kings Fund and University of Worcester 2020 ), with a focus on creating a dementiafriendly environment . We used this assessment to create a report that included suggestions on how to make the environment more accessible for service users with dementia and those with learning disabilities alike .
Some of the suggestions included introducing accessible signage , labelling cupboards , increasing the use of colour and installing grab rails . These changes were designed to
28 OTnews April 2024