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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 experiences, 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.

There is an expectation that you attend 100% of the time allocated. However, students will normally be permitted a maximum of six days of approved absence to allow for unavoidable absences, such as ill health, which equates to a minimum attendance of 85%. This is to ensure that you are able to meet the learning outcomes of the module and that you have sufficient practice placement hours on graduation in order to register with your professional body. Please refer to the Practice Education Handbook for further details.

LO1 Apply and adapt specific practice knowledge to service users/carers and others while communicating effectively and self-managing to enhance continuing professional development.
LO2 Critique the evidence for occupational therapy in an identified practice setting and identify research questions and appropriate research methods.
LO3 Examine local, national and global impacts on occupational therapy provision, including emerging areas of practice
LO4 Demonstrate clinical reasoning processes and the ability to prioritise, manage and evaluate appropriate interventions with a range of service users while showing understanding of team members’ contribution to health and social care practice including the role of training, supervision and mentoring.
LO5 Apply the occupational therapy process in a service context considering sustainability and maintaining a person-centred approach.