DA6105 - Enhanced Occupational Therapy Skills - Innovations in Practice

What will I learn on this module?

This module requires you to draw on your experiences as an emerging practitioner, identifying ethical dilemmas and practice questions from your workplace into your academic learning to identify areas for innovation and development. Your workplace mentor will play a key role in your development throughout this module, working in partnership with university staff to support your application of theory to practice. They help you identify appropriate learning opportunities and develop your professional reasoning. This tripartite relationship between you, your workplace mentor, and the university will nurture a supportive learning environment bringing together academic and practice settings, ensuring coherence in your professional development.

This is a highly practical module based that will enable you to integrate theoretical knowledge with occupational therapy practice by identifying an area of innovation withing your workplace and developing undertaking a work-based project to develop and disseminate your ideas for innovation within your service. You will develop skills in project design, management, evaluation and leadership. Through critical reflection as your project develops you will demonstrate your ability to address meaningful practice issues and your capacity for transformative learning and professional growth. You will develop skills in project management and evaluation, you will consider the evidence base underpinning your chosen area of practice to develop your project, this will enable you to develop competence in leadership, innovation and coproduction through stakeholder engagement. Through ongoing reflection, you will be able to demonstrate your creative problem solving and evaluation skills. This module will also contribute to your development of lifelong learning skills linked to the RCOT career development framework. This module is delivered in semester 1 alongside the dissertation and professional development module enabling you to apply knowledge and skills form these modules to develop your understanding and application of ideas to innovate practice ensuring learning is cohesive across level 6.

How will I learn on this module?

You will engage in workshops focusing on innovation, identifying areas for small improvements in your workplace and leadership, seminar sessions will provide the opportunity for you to present your ongoing work. You will also engage with your work based mentor to identify and address challenges and opportunities for your project development and dissemination. Tutorials will help you to develop your reflective and planning skills. You will engage in university-based seminars and workshops focusing on leadership and change management. You will have the opportunity to engage in critical discussion with experts by experiences and will work closely with your work based mentor and academic tutor to develop your innovation ideas generated form your workplace setting.

How will I be supported academically on this module?

You will work with your tutor and your work based mentor to develop your project ideas, you will engage in peer review and will receive tutorial support throughout the module. You will keep a reflective journal throughout the module that will contribute to your formative assessment and assessment clin sessions will enable you to develop your final assessment. Individual and group tutorials will be provided to support you throughout the process.

What will I be expected to read on this module?

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

What will I be expected to achieve?

Knowledge & Understanding (K&U):
1. Critically evaluate current evidence, policy, and theoretical frameworks relevant to a specific area of occupational therapy practice
2. Demonstrate understanding of coproduction, collaborative working and leadership in relation to project development

Intellectual/Professional skills & abilities (IPSA):
3. Design, implement, and evaluate a work-based project that addresses a clearly defined practice issue or question
4. Critically reflect on the innovation and key processes needed for project design and delivery in the workplace

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Communicate project processes, findings, and personal learning effectively through critically reflective academic writing
6. Demonstrate deep critical reflection on the project process, professional learning, and development as an autonomous occupational therapy practitioner, with clear implications for future practice and continuing professional development.

How will I be assessed?

Formative assessment
Presentation of a project plan supported by an ongoing reflective journal (MLOs 1,3,5).
You will receive feedback and feedforward to help you develop your summative assessment via blackboard within 2 weeks of submission, this is in addition to the weekly feedback on your reflective journal uploaded to Blackboard.

Summative assessment
You will develop a conference style poster of your innovation project that you will present to both university staff and your work based mentor (60% of the module mark). accompanied by a 1000-word reflective account of the development of your change management and leadership skills during the project (40%).

Feedback will be provided via gradebook within the university standard of 20 working days.

Pre-requisite(s)

All level 4 and 5 OTDA modules

Co-requisite(s)

N/A

Module abstract

This module will enable you to integrate theoretical knowledge with occupational therapy practice by undertaking a project within your workplace setting. Through ongoing critical reflection on your project development, you will demonstrate your ability to identify and address real-world practice challenges, implement practical solutions, and leadership within the workplace. The module assessment will enable you to synthesise your project work with analysis of their development as practitioners, showcasing your readiness for professional registration and your capacity to drive positive change in occupational therapy services. This approach recognise that professional competence extends beyond practice skills to encompass innovation, project management, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to learn continuously from your work based practice experiences.

Course info

Credits 20

Level of Study Undergraduate

Mode of Study 2 years Full Time

Location Coach Lane Campus, Northumbria University

City Newcastle

Start September 2026

Fee Information

Module Information

All information is accurate at the time of sharing.

Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.

Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.

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All information is accurate at the time of sharing.

Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.

Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.

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