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learning experience (ILE) allows students the opportunity
to acquire a more comprehensive educational experi-
ence. Students complete both their EBP project course
and their clinical practicum course in the same practice
setting/environment. IPEs may include such foci as pro-
gram evaluation, outcome measurement, environmental
scan and needs assessment.
There may be overlap in the roles and responsibilities
within the two course activities however students must
successfully meet both the course requirements/objec-
tives to pass the respective courses.
An Example…
Two of our student occupational therapists engaged,
first, in clinical placements in their second year of the
MSc (OT) Program at a regional teaching hospital affili-
ated with McMaster University. This hospital is initiating
the exploration of the role of occupational therapy in the
context of an integrated chronic pain program, specific
to mental health services and clients. During this 8 week
clinical education course, student occupational thera-
pists will focus working directly with clients and team
members. They will conduct initial assessments under
the supervision of a registered OT, and will work with
clients to complete the Canadian Occupational Perform-
ance Measure (COPM) (Law, Baptiste, Carswell, McColl,
Polatajko, Pollock, 2014, CAOT Publications). Treatment
will be planned and executed. As is a typical compo-
nent of most OT clinical placements at McMaster, stu-
dents conduct a learning project. In this case, students
will also observe and track the strengths and challenges
/ needs existing in this environment that facilitate and/or
present barriers to client success in therapy.
Following the completion of the clinical placement
course, students work with stakeholders at the site or fa-
cility to identify a clinically-based project that will con-
tribute to both student learning, to clients’ services and
the teams’ work, and will align with the subsequent evi-
dence based project work they will do during the EBP
course. In this example, student occupational therapists
will build on what they have learned and initiated in
placement, and conduct a full needs analysis of occupa-
tional therapy services in this setting and make recom-
mendations, based on these findings, in alignment with
the critical appraisal of relevant current literature, as well
as the perspectives of site/facility administration and
team members. This will culminate in a documented re-
port about the services being delivered, service gaps and
recommendations.
Some examples of ILEs in other contexts have in-
cluded settings such as: hospital-based pediatrics to as-
sess and prepare for the launch of a new service delivery
model; restorative care centre to explore intimacy and
sexuality in clients who have experienced cerebrovascu-
lar accidents; and in a community mental health environ-
ment that explores the execution and evaluation of
performance and satisfaction in meaningful activity.
Occupational therapists have competencies and stu-
dent occupational therapists gain these by applying their
unique occupational focus. Occupational therapy works
with clients in direct service delivery, as well as through
consultative approaches that engage clinical research to
answer questions that are directly relevant to client care
by occupational therapists and teams. By engaging stu-
dents in both clinical and research service, we can en-
able student occupational therapists to gain competency
and familiarity in broader roles. This, then, has the capac-
ity to help students and graduates enter and/or create
unique and creative roles that can adapt to changing
health care demands, and achieve entry points in areas
in which OTs have not engaged previously.
Sumnitted by Lorie Shimmell & Bonny Jung
For more information, please contact:
shimmelj@mcmaster.ca