Claudia
I would like to welcome you to this online forum for occupational therapy educators related to the COVID 19 pandemic. I am Claudia von Zweck and one of my many roles in occupational therapy includes the education of occupational therapists. The outbreak of COVID 19 has generated new challenges around the world for students, educators and practitioners involved in occupational therapy education. I invite you to use this forum to discuss your experiences and share ideas regarding innovative approaches needed at this time to adapt learning opportunities to assist future practitioners acquire the skills, knowledge and experience needed for competency as an occupational therapist.
Claudia
WFOT has published a statement regarding the WFOT Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists and COVID 19. The statement can be accessed at
https://wfot.org/news/2020/covid-19-and-wfot-minimum-education-standards-statement
tecla.mlambo
Hello everyone! Welcome to this important forum. Tecla Mlambo is my name and I am the WFOT Programme Coordinator for education. I wish you well. We would like to know how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your education programmes? What strategies have you put in place to minimize the disruption in learning? WFOT will be happy to hear from different regions of the world. Please take care and stay safe.
WEI Xijun, OT PhD
It's quite challenging for the students and educators, especially for these in fieldwork. All the students are staying at home currently. Learning online should be a proper strategy. We changed the topics of the final year projects of related students from clinical trials to systematic review or meta-analysis.
InaRoosen_Germany
Hello, this is Ina Roosen, German WFOT delegate - is anyone interested in sharing online learning strategies and materials or even tutorials about certain topics? I think we could support each other a lot.
Stay healthy!
Marinaergo
Hello, this is Marina Georgiadou from Cyprus. The online teaching is not as difficult as I imagined it to be. The difficult part, as I see it from my experience, is the clinical placement of the students. We will soon start telehealth sessions and webinars for the population I am working with (asylum seekers and displaced populations) and it is my first time using telehealth for clinical practise. Any ideas, advices??
On another note, do you know of any questionnaires on the quality of the telehealth services? I would greatly appreciate any advice on the matters mentioned above.
Thank you
InaRoosen_Germany
Marinaergo
Dear Ina,
thank you so much for all the great input you have provided!!!!!
I would love to exchange emails on how we, as the OT Department of the European University Cyprus, will be actually implement the telehealth model for providing our services!
Feel free to contacting and I can also put you through the Head of the Department as well.
Stay safe!!!!
ps. Does anyone know where I can find case studies and/or videos of interventions, to discuss with the students? Apart from paediatrics which I believe are EVERYWHERE!!! Thank you!
Helena
Hi everyone, this is Helena Louw, from Namibia. All our students are currently at home and our third years' clinical placement was stopped halfway due to lock-down. For now, we have shifted to theoretical work and are two weeks into online classes and doing alright, although some students have poor access to internet/ devices, especially those in rural areas.
We are uncertain when students will be allowed to return to clinical settings to continue with practical and are somewhat concerned about them being able to complete the 1000 hours within their four years. We had considered tailoring some of our placements to allow delivery of OT input through indirect OT services such as education, consultation, and management-related tasks, to allow students to gather some hours while being prohibited from visiting clinical settings in person. Has anyone else tried something similar or other solutions to compensate for loss of hours due to lock-down?
Would appreciate any suggestions/ guidance, also from WFOT!
