Student education
Feature
A s an occupational therapy team , we are often asked to deliver outreach to schools to promote the role of the profession and encourage applications to the BSc ( Hons ) programme at the University of Southampton .
We believe that our students are best placed to design and deliver this , having been through the selection and recruitment process themselves and being relatable to those considering their future academic and vocational choices .
As part of an academic module , focusing on ‘ Occupation for Design ’, second year occupational therapy students were tasked with conceptualising , designing and implementing an interactive and educational resource for young people ( pre-GCSEs ) to a set brief ( see box out ). The overall aim of the brief was to promote and raise the profile of occupational therapy and to assist young people when making their further education choices ( A-Levels , BTEC , T-Levels etc ).
Students were supported by academics and engaged with school-aged young people to offer feedback on the iterative design process . This article reflects on the students ’ experience of their project development and the valuable impact and outcomes it ’ s having for young people , their teachers and the occupational therapy profession .
Our iterative process
We began developing our schools outreach programme using the Person-Environment- Occupation-Participation ( PEOP ) Model ( Baum et al 2015 ), as well as inclusive design principles ( Design Council 2006 ) to continuously analyse the project .
The flowchart ( below ) represents the iterative process of how the project has evolved through reflective practice following supervision , utilising Driscoll ( 2007 ).
What we did
Initially , we developed four case studies for circulation around pre-GCSE groups , in an attempt to explore different areas of occupational therapy practice .
On reflection , having four case studies would have proved to be too time consuming and would have required four facilitators , presenting as a barrier to both flexibility and ease of use . This also made us consider how else we could improve flexibility to allow the resource to be used virtually . This led to the development of a 40-minute in-person presentation , with one communication activity and one thorough case study , to highlight key skills necessary to becoming an occupational therapist and to provide insight into a patient ’ s experience .
We also developed a modified 20-minute presentation to enable the programme to be used virtually . We will continue to utilise the PEOP model and inclusive design principles , alongside feedback from future opportunities , to optimise the project .
Our resources
We created a range of resources to highlight occupational therapy ’ s practical and diverse nature . These included a stroke case study , featuring interventions and adaptations made by an occupational therapist in the form of a video .
The pre-GCSE students were then given glasses to simulate vision impairments as experienced by the case study shown on the video , to allow them to put themselves in the patient ’ s shoes .
Communication activities were then used to highlight the importance of communication when working with people , and QR codes were used to share resources from the Royal College of Occupational Therapists .
An outcome measure activity was also developed , to measure whether the young people who engaged in our project knew what occupational therapy was at the end of the session , in comparison with before .
Our journey
We trialled the project , which then highlighted some key areas for improvement to optimise
Week 2 Week 5 Week 7 Week 10
Four case studies exploring different areas
Two in depth case studies
Flowchart of changes
One case study and two communication activities
One case study and one communication activity
February 2023 OTnews 25