Preparing Occupational Therapy Students for Practice Placements: Initial Evidence

Abstract

Practice placements are a crucial part of occupational therapy education, yet they can be a stressful experience for students, practice placement educators and the university. This may contribute to a shortage of placements. The effectiveness of a 4-week preparation, with second-level full-time students at Brunel University, prior to a practice placement was evaluated by a two-part analysis. First, the students' perspective on the effectiveness of the preparation is presented. This is followed by a comparison of placement grades between the current cohort of students (academic year 2006–2007), who attended the preparation, and the previous cohort of students (academic year 2005–2006), who did not have this opportunity.