Differentiating Fieldwork Settings: Matching Student Characteristics to Demands

Academic fieldwork coordinators (AFWCs) face the challenge of matching students to Level II fieldwork (FW) sites. This study surveyed 301 fieldwork educators (FWEs) from 30 states to explore how important it was for students to possess 25 characteristics or abilities to enable success at the educato...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOccupational therapy in health care Vol. 32; no. 3; p. 216
Main Authors Kemp, Erika L, Crabtree, Jeffrey L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 03.07.2018
Subjects
Achievement
Clinical Clerkship
Clinical Competence
Communication
Curriculum
Humans
Occupational Therapists
Occupational Therapy - education
Problem-Based Learning
Professional Competence
Professionalism
Students
Surveys and Questionnaires
Time Management
Fieldwork
occupational therapy
professional behavior
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Summary:Academic fieldwork coordinators (AFWCs) face the challenge of matching students to Level II fieldwork (FW) sites. This study surveyed 301 fieldwork educators (FWEs) from 30 states to explore how important it was for students to possess 25 characteristics or abilities to enable success at the educators' individual work sites. The top three characteristics and abilities overall were as follows: (1) time management, (2) ability to communicate with supervisor when help is needed, and (3) overall professional behavior. Using Mann-Whitney U-tests for ordinal data, statistically significant differences (p ≤ .01) were found between settings with acute care having the highest expectations of students. Overall results support the value of FW coordinators matching students' abilities to demands of settings prior to Level II FW placements. Top ranking items may also guide schools on admissions criteria and skill development throughout curriculum.
ISSN:1541-3098
DOI:10.1080/07380577.2018.1491084