Student education
Student education
Feature
S ue Hilsdon has been a volunteer with The Wave Project in North Devon for four seasons and has been providing longarm supervision for occupational therapy clinical and research contemporary placements since 2020 .
After working with two other BSc occupational therapy courses , Sue tentatively offered to support students from the University of the West of England ( UWE ), and after ‘ frank discussions ’ with Ian Bennett and Jas Bennett at The Wave Project , the practicalities of a placement with the charity were formulated .
‘ The team at The Wave Project saw the value of working with occupational therapy students and my enthusiasm for this , and we linked with placement staff at UWE ,’ Sue explains . ‘ Laura Quick from the UWE placement team had experienced The Wave Project as a spectator , so was keen to engage .’
Two UWE occupational therapy student , Elizabeth ( Lizzie ) Slater and Caoimhe Byrne were seeking a third placement and had expressed interest in working with a non-traditional provider , so were chosen to participate .
‘ I formulated a list of potential learning opportunities for the students and shared them with Jas and Ian ,’ Sue goes on . ‘ This formed the basis of a comprehensive programme of activities for the 12- week placement , and the students ’ learning contracts were also derived from these .
‘ The main strands of opportunity , learning and engagement became a placement calendar , which encompassed the programme of activities for The Wave Project summer season .’
Senior lecturer at UWE Laura Quick says : ‘ The university has been supporting role emerging placements for over 20 years . When onboarding a new placement , it ’ s important to establish clear communication links , understand each person ’ s role in supporting the placement , and set expectations for the practice educator and mentor of what they can expect from occupational therapy students and UWE .
‘ An initial exploration meeting is useful to provide this clarity . Therefore , Ian , Jas , Sue and I met virtually to discuss how UWE could support the placement delivery , what they needed the students to engage in to support the placement and the expectations of the along-arm supervision role for Sue .
‘ I also shared previous success stories and encouraged them to consider areas of challenge for them , or potential projects the students could get involved with . This sparked a range of discussion areas and we agreed to trial the placement over Summer 2024 .’
As the students needed to access mandatory training months before starting , Laura had to source students quickly .
‘ Understanding the demands of this unique placement was important ,’ she says . ‘ They had to be confident in the water , but not necessarily good swimmers . They didn ’ t need any surfing experience , but an interest in this area was essential . They also needed to be strong students who could talk confidently about occupational therapy .’
Lizzie and Caoimhe developed various resources for The Wave Project throughout the placement , including referral guidelines and a case study and presentation . Lizzie says of her experience : ‘ Being given the opportunity to join The Wave Project as a placement has been an exciting , intriguing and significant experience , which has shaped my future practice . From the outset I understood the value of community and belonging the project creates – from both the volunteers and service users .’
She goes on : ‘ During my first week I had the privilege of meeting most of the volunteers who attend the sessions . At the end of the week , I was put on one-to-one with a young girl currently in foster care for surf therapy sessions . Over summer , I was able to see her grow as a person and become more confident in both herself , and her surfing skills .
‘ The most significant and impactful part of this placement was being able to work with children in foster care and those with significant trauma . Connecting with the project ’ s community has helped show the importance of community in healthcare and how locals will rally behind charities to ensure they can continue helping our community .’
The summer surf sessions were a perfect example of this , Lizzie describes : ‘ Volunteers dedicated themselves to multiple sessions , allowing hundreds of children and teenagers to become more confident , happier and create new friendships .’
She says : ‘ The best part of this placement was being able to use occupational therapy outside of a hospital . Despite having to work backwards from the intervention , it helped me to conceptualise and understand the occupational value of surfing , along with all other sports .
‘ During sessions , I noticed that most of the adaptive surfers , who have more complex needs , struggled to communicate their needs . These were things as basic as if they were having fun or if they were cold . From this we saw the use communication sheets would hold in this setting .
‘ These use faces and simple pictures , with words underneath like happy , sad , worried or hungry . Other sheets , containing activities such as a scavenger hunt , help to keep the children engaged if they would rather play on the beach . This means that the child is still engaging in therapy by using play instead of surfing .
‘ It can also help the child to build up a relationship with the volunteer , as well as benefiting their social
Main image : The students and project volunteers using the seated board
Circle bottom left : Scooter the surf therapy dog during a session
November 2024 OTnews 47