Service providers
OT Futures is here to connect industry with emerging talent. We support you to offer and accept student placements. To address the shortage of occupational therapists in the industry connect with OT Futures to connect with highly trained occupational therapy students who are enrolled in Queensland's leading universities.
OT Futures can help in the following ways:
You can access a how to guide to learn 'how to' become a practice educator.
Preparation for practice education.
Resources to offer a quality student placement opportunity.
Make connections to Queensland university OT programs to build your workforce.
The huge demand for Occupational Therapists since the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and an ageing population remaining independent at home for longer has created an industry shortage of Occupational Therapists.
Accessing Student placements will ensure you have access to graduate Occupational Therapists who understand current practice and who has become entrenched in your organisation through prolonged student placements.
OT Futures is here to support you to offer and accept student placements and continue to maintain the high-quality service standards of the industry. OT Futures can help in the following ways:
- Student Placements
So, you’re ready to take on a student placement! How exciting! Here at OT Futures, you can access a ‘how to guide’ for all things you need to know. From understanding how to become a Clinical Educator or Supervisor, through to organising you student placement and how to support struggling students- you will find all you need to know through information factsheets and interactive videos.
- Preparation for Student placement
You’ve reached that part in your degree where you are about to apply all that knowledge you have been learning! Wahoo! Here at OT Futures- we provide you with guides from understanding your SPEF to what my first day might look like. This ‘go to guide’ will help you feel confident approaching your organisation and being able to demonstrate all those skills you need to be the best you can be!
- Employment connection and opportunities
Here at OT Futures we know that it can be hard to find the ‘right person’ for the role. We want to give back to you for offering your time and resources in offering student placements by giving you direct access to new graduates and advertise your available roles!
In the words of Helen Keller- “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”! Here at OT Futures we offer you connection to like-minded people and access to some of the greatest minds to come to Occupational Therapy!
How Placements Can Add Value
Student placement supervision is a two-way street. The learning and development rewards for students are well documented, but the rewards for you as the supervisor are many and varied.
Did you know that by supervising an occupational therapy student on a block placement, you can:
- Gain valuable AHPRA OT accreditation / CPD hours for registration
- Develop your personal supervision skills
- Keep up to date with the latest evidence-based practice
- Ask your student to develop much needed resources for you
- Hone your clinical reasoning skills
- Make new linkages and networking within the profession
- Get the student to assist you with local quality improvement initiatives
- Have the student gather the latest evidence base and literature for you
- Improve your ability to reflect on practice
- Have the student update written client handouts and education materials
- Advocate for increased OT services in your area
- Support the future of the OT profession
Workplace benefits of supervising students
We conducted a survey of occupational therapists about the organisational benefits from supervising students prior to becoming OT Futures. Student placements were found to:
- enable assessment of students for future recruitment potential;
- increase departmental productivity and client service provision;
- develop staff supervision and training skills;
- develop staff clinical reasoning skills;
- develop staff organisation & time management skills;
- promote exposure of the service to the community;
- support the maintenance of supervising clinician skills;
- promote diversity in the workplace;
- enable organisational projects to be completed, for example the development of protocols and forms;
- enable valuable resources to be developed, for example: client manuals, brochures, education programs and occupational therapy resource materials;
- enable the implementation/commencement or continuation of quality assurance or evidence-based practice research activities.
For more information about student practice education and placement possibilities, please contact us.
Why contribute?
Congratulations! You have decided to provide a student clinical placement. This is wonderful news not only for the student and the University, but also for YOU!
Setting up and sustaining a positive student clinical placement is the second part of the Clinical Educator's Resource Kit. It contains a step-by-step guide to setting up a successful student placement.
Future Allies provides insights into building your NDIS workforce through student placements. Find out how students add value to NDIS consumers.
See how Alison and Chrisdell at the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) manage and run their OT student placements. This video provides a brief introduction to their placement philosophy and how this is embedded within their service.
How it works
Step 1
Connect with your local OT Futures University Partner (link to form) to discuss your organisations goals and needs.
Step 2
Your OT Future partner representative will contact you to discuss options for customising your OT student placement.
Step 3
Check out additional resources and handy guides for offering a successful student placement here!
FAQs
Practice Educators are supported to learn how to guide and develop the values and standards of occupational therapy through interactive learning and resources. Practice educators are provided with step-by-step process of how to start a student placement, how to manage a student placement and key evaluation skills. Like many situations, we can't always ensure placements will be positive. Therefore, we have provided a guide of ‘how to manage difficult or challenging placements’ and ‘how to manage my student not doing well.’ These useful guides promote your success in practice education and ensure you can maintain the practice standards and evidence-based practice of occupational therapy.
Placement Planning & Dealing With Challenges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDoebgFgGQs
We all know that planning is a vital part of the success of practice placements. Chrisdell from the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) reveals how they plan for their student placements, and provides tips for dealing with challenges as they arise.
Here is where you will find a wide variety of advice, tips, suggestions, and recommendations for student placements. If you are never supervised a student before or are thinking about doing so after a long break, the Why Supervise a Student and Getting Started in Student Supervision sections are for you. There, you will discover the many benefits a student can bring to you, your role, your clients and your organisation.
There is a wide variety of placement models to choose from, and you can negotiate specific and flexible arrangements to suit your need. If you are expecting a student on placement soon, the Preparing for Placement section, with its comprehensive student orientation content is a great place to start. Learn from those before you and build your own student orientation folder and process.
For more specific advice and information about how to run a successful student placement and promoting optimal student development, learning and contributions to your service – look towards the Essential Supervision Skills, Techniques and Suggestions. In there you will find invaluable advice and guidance about facilitating reflective practice and promoting the development of clinical reasoning on placement. Advice on student supervision, scaffolding student learning, and evaluating your student is also included in there.
And finally, we have included a short section about dealing with challenges on placement. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, things don't always go according to plan. For those times, we have guidance and advice for navigating and negotiating concerns on placement.
1. Placement Planning & Dealing With Challenges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDoebgFgGQs
We all know that planning is a vital part of the success of practice placements. Chrisdell from the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) reveals how they plan for their student placements, and provides tips for dealing with challenges as they arise.
2. Preparing and Planning for Collaborative Placements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coe0GphVng
Melanie Roberts is an OT Lecturer at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. Here, she provides an overview of the planning and preparing process involved in Griffith University's OT collaborative placements.
Contact Us
How can you be involved in providing practice education experiences for students?
Need to know more about practice education and student placements?
Are you interested in joining the OT Futures collaborative?
Interested in training, hosting, offering a placement or something else?
Please contact us: info@otfutures.com