Module overview
This module provides an opportunity to experience current practice in a variety of locations across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and surrounding counties. Principle providers of placement will be in health or social care settings. You will be assigned one or more HCPC registered therapists who will be your main placement educator(s) for the placement. However, you will likely work within a wider team as a routine part of the experience. You and the placement educator will be allocated an Academic Contact (a member of the academic staff in the School's OT team) who will provide a link to the academic programme and will meet you at least once during the placement. You will be supernumerary to the staff in the area in which you are placed.
This particular placement has a focus on you making an active contribution to the assessment and treatment of service users in a specific area of practice. You will take an active part under close supervision of the placement educator who will prompt you to take responsibility for a selected caseload.
Integration of Service Users
The experience of working closely with service users of all ages, cultural backgrounds and across clinical specialities is an essential ingredient to the learning and assessment of competency within the occupational therapy programme. This placement links to work carried out in other level 5 modules where specific service user groups needs and/or treatment is investigated at an applied level. You need to be aware of service users' lived experiences derived from narratives, research and evaluation of practice. This will improve your knowledge base and also underpin any self-development activities linked to practice placement. This combination of theoretical evidence and practice-based work will ensure that the needs of service users are dealt with in a proactive and positive manner in all your scholarly and practical activities.
Multi-Professional Learning
The partnership between academic and practice environments is an essential ingredient in the development, delivery and evaluation of the Occupational Therapy programme. During other level 5 modules you will have opportunities to work alongside and learn together in groups of students from different professional backgrounds. This will be replicated in practice placement experiences where different professions frequently work together within practice teams. It is envisaged that these experiences will have an impact on how, and what you explore and in particular will be a feature of aspects of your personal and professional development activities (see learning outcomes).