OT6006 - Advanced Skilled for Practice

All learning on the BSc Occupational Therapy programme is designed to be transformative and experiential. Through practical, experiential and sometimes immersive approaches, you will practice specific skills (such as using therapeutic skills to manage differences of opinions or teach a caregiver a therapeutic technique) with opportunities for repetition, reflection and feedback.

Technology enabled approaches (such as the use of video-capture, 360 immersive video or Virtual Reality) will be used to enable you to practice your own skills in authentic and real-time scenarios. Practical workshops will be used to try out specific techniques; for example, managing risk for yourself and others within a moving and handling situation and manging group dynamics.

Experts with lived experience will be involved in your learning to help you to reflect on specific practice skills. We will focus increasingly on tailoring our professional skills to the uniqueness of individuals, their families, their cultures and contexts. We will also think about how we develop collaborative skills in situations of risk, uncertainty and where there are conflicting ideas.

You will have the opportunity to gather examples of activities and evidence of your learning, self-appraisal and reflection to contribute to your student ePortfolio. This aims to enhance your learning by taking you beyond the limits of the individual module, and helping foster lifelong learning, as portfolios support inquiry, reflection and integration of learning. Items for your ePortfolio could include self-assessment or peer-feedback on your practical skills.

The identified module tutor, alongside the module teaching team, will structure learning opportunities to support your learning and skill development within the module and to assist you to work towards the module assessment. Where appropriate, contributors with lived experience and practitioners will also support your learning.

The module guide, the electronic reading list, and information communicated on the e-learning portal will all signpost you to resources to support your academic development.

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)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Apply understanding of occupational therapy core skills, frameworks and theories to safe, effective and ethical decision-making in practice

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. Critically analyse occupational therapy practice in relation to sustainable occupations and sustainable healthcare.
3. Critically analyse the application of technology to occupational therapy practice skills and people’s occupational lives.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
4. Facilitate collaborative decisions which take positive risks and reflect uncertainty.
5. Show a commitment to safe, effective, ethical and legal practice when learning practice skills and when facilitating the learning of others.

Formative Assessment
Opportunities to practice scenarios within simulation, with opportunity for peer and tutor feedback and reflection on video feedback.

Summative Assessment
Practical Examination

You will complete a practical assessment based on a range of pre-prepared scenarios and consisting of three components. The three components are:

- Submit a group protocol
- Demonstrate facilitation of an occupation-focussed group
- Articulate professional reasoning and reflection in an oral viva

Further information:
- You will have choice of a range of pre-prepared scenarios
- You will be provided with a structured template for the group protocol.
- You will work in small groups to facilitate an occupation-focussed group
- The written intervention plan and video of the occupation-focussed group will be submitted in advance of the viva and reviewed by the assessor(s)
- Within the oral viva, you will respond to a set number of questions from a pool of questions communicated to you in advance.

Your summative assessment mark and feedback will be returned to you within the University standard of 20 working days, normally accessed through the module eLP site.

All level 4 and level 5 modules

At each level of the BSc Occupational Therapy programme we have a ‘skills for practice’ module, supporting you to develop skills for professional prac

At each level of the BSc Occupational Therapy programme we have a ‘skills for practice’ module, supporting you to develop skills for professional practice. You will develop skills across three broad areas: building relationships; occupational therapy assessments; and occupational therapy interventions.

In this Advanced Skills for Practice module, we will build on foundation skills from Levels 4 and 5 University and Practice learning. You will continue to develop skills in situations which require adaptability and different approaches – including the ability to work with conflicting ideas or where there are ethical dilemmas. In relation to occupational therapy assessments, you will practice using flexible approaches to co-construct understandings of individuals, groups and communities. You will teach others intervention techniques and also practice using your skills in real-time.

This is a year-long module to support you to make links to your practice-based learning/placement module (which spans Semester 1 and 2) – and to integrate learning across other Level 6 modules.

The assessment for this module will require you to demonstrate a wide range of skills including your report-writing, group facilitation, and verbal reasoning and reflection.