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Practice Education facilitates the application of your core theoretical knowledge from University into the practice setting, in a safe and competent manner. Your Practice Education placement is an Occupational Therapist supervised, full-time practice education opportunity which takes place over a minimum of 8 weeks in a setting that meets the needs of service users with physical, psychosocial or other, often complex, needs. You may also be on placement in an area that provides specialist services for example children’s services, hospice care, housing services, residential settings, Care Homes, care providers, Third Sector or Community Services and novel, emerging areas of practice. As appropriate, you will work within a model of care and should take every opportunity to learn about and work with other professionals within the setting to increase your knowledge of integrated health and social care. You may receive additional supervision from other appropriately qualified professionals to enhance your experience of Practice Education.

Practice Education develops the application of your core knowledge and understanding of Occupational Therapy theory, constructs and contexts as you experience them being applied to real life situations. You will develop your practice skills, and build on your previous Practice Education experience, by applying them to a range of Occupational Therapy processes including receiving and making referrals, understanding and gaining consent, information gathering, assessment, planning, applying and adapting interventions, analysing outcomes and communicating written and oral information.

Alongside this, you will continue to develop your communication, inter-personal, critical thinking and decision-making abilities as you work with service users and their carers, and will develop your ability to work as part of a team with service providers. You will also develop core knowledge and practice skills by seeking evidence and policy to inform your understanding of the application of Occupational Therapy to your practice context. You should take opportunities to develop your understanding of the importance of audit, quality assurance and review to practice. You will be expected to demonstrate autonomy and initiative in the practice based setting. You will receive both Summative and Formative feedback on your core knowledge and practice skills during Practice Education.

You will be expected to adhere to Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct. You will also be expected to follow the policy of your practice setting in relation to, for example use of social media and data protection.

Important: Please see your practice education handbook for details of attendance and hours of practice education required.

LO1 Demonstrate practice knowledge and apply occupations and the Occupational Therapy process in a service or community context and work within an equal opportunity and ethical framework.
LO2 Recognise and discuss service changes, developments and policies that impact on practice contexts, recognising the scope of your own practice, when to seek advice, and when to refer to others.
LO3 Identify and prioritise impacts on the occupational performance of service users.
LO4 Demonstrate a range of clinical reasoning strategies: reflecting on own performance, assessment protocols, the setting, interventions available and desired outcomes and the need for continued professional development and recognising your scope of practice.
LO5 Use occupation within a treatment process to facilitate change with a range of individual clients and/or groups and as part of a multi-disciplinary team
LO6 Demonstrate communication skills with service users, carers and team members including formal/informal written and oral communication understanding the limits and importance of confidentiality, information governance and safe and effective use of health and social care information.