Happy Holidays from the UofA Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine!

CSCE Clinical Educator Workshops: Practical Skills for Maximizing Student Development

The UofA Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine Collaborative for Scholarship in Clinical Education (CSCE) is offering the following clinical educator workshop:

Clinical Education in Rehabilitation: Practical Skills for Maximizing Student Development (includes discipline-specific breakout sessions to discuss curriculum, student evaluation process, etc)

This full-day workshop will be held in:

• Calgary on Dec 14, 2017 from 0900-1600
• Lethbridge on Dec 15, 2017 from 0900-1600

This full-day workshop is intended for clinical educators (CEs) who are interested in working with rehabilitation students in variety of practice settings. The morning will provide a thorough orientation to student supervision and evaluation including placement structure, clinical teaching strategies for successful placements, and discipline-specific information. In the afternoon, participants will explore and develop skills regarding the provision of constructive feedback and the facilitation of student reflection and professional growth. Work-readiness, professionalism, and the progression of clinical reasoning toward independent, entry-level practice will also be discussed. This workshop will provide strategies and support to new CEs as well as a more in-depth look at resources and strategies for more experienced CEs.

To register for the Calgary workshop click here.

To register for the Lethbridge workshop click here.

Registration is FREE for OTs who are or plan to be involved in student supervision but spots are limited so register soon to avoid disappointment!

We appreciate your ongoing support of OT student placements!

OCCTH 528 Final Placements & OCCTH 503 Introductory Fieldwork Placements

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who supervised a Level 3b student during their OCCTH 528 placements in September & October!

Those final placements are over and a new crop of OTs have now joined our ranks. They are starting to find employment and preparing for the NOTCExam mid-month. Exciting times for each of them!

Congratulations, graduands!

This week more than 120 Year One OT students are completing their one-week OCCTH 503 Introductory Fieldwork Placements at sites around Alberta and Saskatchewan.

We really appreciate all the clinicians who are sharing their practices and mentoring these learners early in their MScOT program!

UAlberta Chair of OT honoured with 40th Muriel Driver Memorial Lectureship Award

Our own Dr Lili Liu, Chair of the UofA Department of Occupational Therapy, has been awarded the 2017 Muriel Driver Memorial Lectureship.

Congratulations, Lili! We will all look forward to hearing your lecture in June 2018 at the CAOT National Conference in Vancouver BC.

For the full story click here.

Got Lower Back Pain? An Evening of Research and Innovation

This Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine event is free and open to the public.

Register by clicking here.

FRM Alumni & Student BBQ

Please join the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine for our Alumni-Student BBQ!

To RSVP click here.

Interprofessional Student Clinic Coordinator wanted!

The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is looking for a coordinator for a proposed Interprofessional Student clinic.  Please click on this link for more information:  http://www.careers.ualberta.ca/Competition/A109533282/

Postcards from the Field

For the second year in a row, we have asked our Level 1 students to share some of the experiences they have had on their first placement.  We have a lot of fun seeing the diverse practice areas and locations are students are in and how excited they are to apply their skills in the real world.  Here are a few of the 'postcards' we received. 

Kayla and Alice are completing an Independent Community Placement at Ambrose Place in Edmonton and have enjoyed participating in a number of cultural activities in the Indigenous community.  

Paula is with the Stroke Early Supported Discharge Program in Grand Prairie.  She writes that one of her client's valued activities is caring for her pet donkeys, so Paula got to analyze what skills are involved in navigating this task!

Chelsea at Edmonton Catholic Schools got to watch the students excitement with the hatching of the ducklings.

Kimberley sends greetings from Saskatoon City Hospital on her way to the operating room to observe a Total Knee Replacement.

The students are finished this week and then will have the summer off before starting year 2 in September.  In the meantime, most the current Year 2s will head out on their first senior placement (Level 3A) next week.  Thank you to all the great teams out there supporting the MScOT students. 

Community development conference, convocation, 

and final projects! 

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Corbett Hall as our students are in a time of transition. While our Year 1 students are off in various corners of Alberta and Saskatchewan completing their first fieldwork placements, our most recent graduates from Fall 2016 are returning to the U of A for their spring convocation this afternoon.

As for our Year 2s, it's been a whirlwind of activities this past several weeks!  Before they head out for their final two placements in July/August and September/October, they celebrated with a graduation banquet June 3 at the Faculty Club.  It was so nice to hear the inspirational speech from Dr.s  Liz Taylor and Mary Forhan and to see the students engage in well deserved celebrations.  Last week, they finished the last of their traditional classes and capped it off with the Community Development Conference, where they presented their projects completed with community partners including asset mapping, health promotion, empowerment education, peer support, participatory action research, community rehab and partnership building.  Please check out the Faculty of Rehab Medicine facebook page for some photos  FMR June 8, 2017

Year 2s on their last day of formal classes! 

Moments after this picture was taken (on a beautiful 26 degree day), I am sure all the students rushed back to put the final touches on their capstone OccTh 903 projects, which they will be defending this Thursday!  This is the last of their in class requirements before they are off to their final two placements!

Congratulations to all our student on their achievements and to you, our community partners for your support and contributions to their development!

We are matching the final placement in September/October this Thursday and could always use a few more offers.  If you feel you can offer, please contact me at cherie.henderson@ualberta.ca or any member of the clincal education team.  As always...THANK YOU!

Community Development Mini-Conference

June 8th, 2017

Corbett Hall, University of Alberta and
U of C Downtown Campus, Rm 3-26 (906 - 8 ave SW)

Our community partners are invited to our Community Development mini-conference to celebrate the work of our occupational therapy students and the community organizations that have supported their community development learning.

Students will present their projects to the community member, their peers, and professors.  Projects include:

• community asset mapping
• health promotion
• empowerment education 
• peer support
• participatory action research
• community rehabilitation
• partnership building

9:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks (Prof. S. Brintnell)

9:10-10:20 Keynote:  Community Development in everyday practice: Ways of seeing, being, and asking questions.  Dr. Heidi Lauckner - School of Occupational Therapy, Dalhousie University

10:30-1:00 Student poster presentations

This will be an opportunity to network with other community organizations, university staff and faculty, and occupational therapy students.  

Call for offers - Fall 2017

THANK YOU to those of you who are involved in the education and support of  UofA MScOT students!

We greatly appreciate the generous number of offers that we received for OCCTH 525 and 527. 

Please consider offering a fieldwork placement for the upcoming Fall sessions.  

OCCTH 528, Year 2, Level 3b (Final Placement):  September 5 - October 20, 2017  (7 weeks)

OCCTH 503, Year 1, Introductory Placement:  November 6 - 10, 2017  (5 days)

Please send your placement offers by June 9th in one of the following ways:

1. If you are an HSPnet user, please accept your Placement Request(s) (PR) in HSPnet

2. If you work for AHS, please notify Tracy Wulff at AHS via email with your offer:  Tracy.Wulff@albertahealthservices.ca

3. If you work for Covenant Health, please notify Stacey Roussel with your offer:  Stacey.Roussel@covenanthealth.ca

4. If you work for Capital Care, please notify the CC Student Placement Team with your offer:  capitalcarestudent.placements@capitalcare.net

5.  All other sites interested in making an offer please contact Michelle Green, Clinical Education Administrator:  michelle.green@ualberta.ca  and she can send you a Recruitment Form.  

It is important to us that you find clinical instruction and mentorship to be a rewarding experience - we recognize the commitment and time it takes to supervise these 'OTs-in-training!' Your participating is greatly appreciated and your feedback is always welcome.

Supporting Level 1 Students

Today marks the first day of placement for our Level 1 students as they head out for seven weeks in the field for OccTh 525.  I can tell you they are a very excited group - keen on learning, participating and applying what they have learned over the last nine months.

The course outline indicates the expectation for the students at this level is about 25% of typical caseload in a timely, competent, and safe manner with moderate to maximal supervision.  On the Competency Base Fieldwork Evaluation, the target the competency rating (numerical) rating would be in the 1-3 range, though there can be variations based on student experience, practice setting, and available opportunities.




"Application of Knowledge" is the focus of learning for this placement and the first experience (other than the one week shadow last fall) students have with clinical reasoning.  At this level, students are beginning to use "procedural" reasoning.  This is the "how to" type of concrete reasoning that helps them gather and categorize information.


Questions that can help students develop this include:

• What did you learn? 
• How was this client similar to the last one?
• How were they different?
• What are two things that went well? How can you tell? (what's the evidence?)
• What are two things you would try to do differently next time? 

As students become more comfortable with the concrete reasoning, preceptors can encourage them to start to develop more "interactive" reasoning.  This is the type of reasoning that helps them recognize individual differences and meaning, how to practice in a client centered manner, and why there is rarely only one way to help a client achieve their goals.   Questions that can help students develop this include:

• What do you think the client learned?
• How do you think they responded to your intervention/questions/plan? (evidence?)
• How does this client's presentation differ from what you learned in school? 
• What would you try and do more of with this client next time? 

To read more about different types of reasoning, have a look at the CAOT publication by Lisa Mendez and Jodene Neufeld "Clinical reasoning:What is it and why should I care?"  (CAOT Publications, 2003).  A few other tips for preceptors from this publication:

• Talk out loud!  Students can't learn simply by watching your actions - try and share your continuous thought revisions.
• Have your student 'predict' what a client will look like based on information they have gathered.
• Encourage 'what' and 'why' questions
• Give a homogeneous caseload (so much as is possible)

We hope everyone has a great first week and look forward to any questions you might have for the fieldwork team!

Canada 150 Rehab Med Family Fun Day 2017

June 3, 2017 from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Corbett Hall front lawn

8205 - 114 Street, Edmonton AB, T6G 2G4

Register by May 31st

Join us for a FREE Family Fun Day, an opportunity for kids to learn about physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology, enjoy the bouncy castle slide, face painting and balloon twisters, meet the University of Alberta mascots Guba and Patches and enjoy a free ice cream sundae and t-shirt! 

PLUS, help us celebrate Canada's 150th birthday by adding your hand print to our Canada 150 mural and sharing your photos with us!

A great opportunity for alumni and students to connect and for the community to learn more about our campus and our programs.

For more information and to register, visit uab.ca/rehab150fun.

Clinical Educator Workshop - Edmonton

April 26: 9:00-4:00

Presented by the Collaborative for Scholarship in Clinical Education (CSCE), Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta

Workshop Description:

This full day workshop is intended for clinical educators (CEs) who are interested in working with rehabilitation students in a variety of practice settings.  The morning will provide a thorough orientation to student supervision and evaluation including placement structure, clinical teaching strategies for successful placements, and discipline-specific information.  In the afternoon, participants will explore and develop skills regarding the provision of constructive feedback and the facilitation of student reflection and professional growth.  Work-readiness, professionalism and the progression of clinical reasoning towards independent, entry level practice will also be discussed.  This workshop will provide strategies and support to new CEs as well as more in-depth look at resources and strategies for more experienced CEs. 

Location: 2-07 Corbett Hall, University of Alberta

Parking:  Parking is available at Corbett Hall.  There is a fee for parking and machines can be found in the parking area. 

Refreshments:  Morning and afternoon refreshments will be provided.

Lunch:  Lunch is on your own.  There are several lunch options near Corbett Hall. 

Registration: A maximum of 70 spots are available for this workshop.  First preference for registration will be for those planing to attend the full day.  

Cost:  This workshop is provided free of charge for OT, PT, and SLP clinicians who have provided clinical placements for students from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine or those who are planning to do so. 

To register:  Complete the registration form at the following link:  https://goo.gl/forms/3kR7mSknV2qfN1cT2

Questions:   Contact Lu-Anne McFarlane [ Luanne@ualberta.ca ] with questions or if you have difficulty with the online form.  

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your response to our recent requests for additional offers for our Level 1 students in May-June.  We have been able to secure spots for all of the students and will be contacting sites in the next little while.  As always, please feel free to contact any of the fieldwork team with questions, concerns or support while the students are with you:

Edmonton & Northern Alberta - Cherie Henderson [cherie.henderson@ualberta.ca]

Edmonton Community Independent Placements - Loraine Kolber [lkolber@ualberta.ca]

Calgary & Southern Alberta (Red Deer and south) - Jutta Hinrichs [jutta.hinrichs@ualberta.ca] 

Saskatchewan - Michele Derdall  [derdall@ualberta.ca]

Program Administrator - Michelle Green [mgreen@ualberta.ca]

Next up...Level 3A placements July & August (*some flexibility in dates)

Class notes

The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is interested in hearing your stories about your days at the U of A.  Check out this link to hear your former class mates stories and submit your own; 

 Class Notes - FRM

Celebrating preceptor excellence

The Rehab Medicine Student Association hosted it's annual Gala on March 25th and we were thrilled to acknowledge Clinical Educators of the Year for all three departments. This year, special recognition went to the Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury - Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury who produced both the Occupational Therapy (Gary Rowland) and Physical Therapy (Kari Kopat).  This is obviously a team and facility that excels in Clinical Education and the honor was well deserved! 

Fieldwork News: Past, Present, Future!

PAST: 

Thank you to all who came out to our Fieldwork Appreciation Events in Saskatoon and Edmonton in the last few weeks.  It was so much fun to celebrate our clinical community and have a chance to express our appreciation.  We hope to plan similar events in other cities in the future. 

PRESENT:  

Level I placements still needed!!! 

We are still looking for a large number of placements for our Level 1 students from May 15-June 30.  These students are especially keen and excited to have their first opportunity to actively participate in occupational therapy service.  The general caseload expectation is approximately 25% of caseload with moderate to maximal assist, the focus is on applying academic knowledge, and  the supervision style is focused on 'teaching'. While we obviously want students to have lots of client contact, because there is a lower expectation for independence, it is reasonable to provide students with extra time and structured opportunities to engage in self-directed learning or practice.  Here are some ideas to engage student's while preceptors are completing their own activities:

• perform chart review, practice charting
• prepare notes for brief verbal report (rounds)
• complete an occupational profile on a client (even if you don't know what's involved in that, the student should!)
• spend time exploring relevant cultural competency resources such as spending time with an Elder or Aboriginal Helper,  or simply having discussions with clients about their culture and it's impact on occupational performance. 
• research community resources and partners
• research a diagnosis, lab result or diagnostic test and relate to occupational performance
• review medication list and identify potential influence on occupational performance
• shadow OT in another area, identify similarities and differences
• spend time with support personnel and discuss assignment and delegation principles
• shadow interprofessional team members and identify overlapping and unique scope of practice
• complete a project or deliver a presentation that supports learning objectives (no more than 5% of placement time)
• spend time becoming familiar with equipment, materials, resources (adjust some wheelchairs, play with splinting scraps, sew a sling!)

If you feel you can support a student at this time or want to discuss options please contact Michele Green <mgreen@ualberta.ca> or Cherie Henderson  cherie.henderson@ualberta.ca 

FUTURE: 

Rehab Med Family Fun Day & Calgary Open House

Join us for a FREE family event for people of all ages to learn what physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and rehabilitation scientists do! PLUS an opportunity for prospective students to tour the Calgary satellite site, learn more about MSc Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy programs, and see our ‘double robot’ in action!

Saturday, April 8, 2017

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 

Calgary Downtown Campus 

Floor 3, 906-8 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2P 1H9

Register by March 31 at: registration

Fieldwork Community Appreciation Event

We are pleased to host past, present, and future supporters of our MScOT students to the following Pub Nights:

Saskatoon - March 9th, 4:30-6:30 at Mano's on 8th st E

Edmonton - March 15, 5:00-7:00 at Canadian Brewhouse on 109 street/104 avenue

Drop in anytime for appetizers, soft drinks and prizes.

Please RSVP to cherie.henderson@ualberta.ca

Celebrating Preceptor Excellence

I was so happy to attend the SAOT AGM last week and see some of our excellent preceptors recognized with the SAOT Clinical Preceptor Award.  There were four recipients this year:

Mary Henry from the Royal Alexandra Hospital

Mary Henry with SAOT's Laura Budzak

Gary Rowland and Anthony Goodwin of Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury 

Gary and Anthony with their former students Priyanka Vergis and Taylor Guy

Also recognized was Nicole Bretzer of Shepherd's Care Foundation.

Congratulations to these four and thank you for providing excellent mentorship to our students!

Happy New Year!

We head into Winter Term with quiet halls as our Year Two students are out on their OccTh 526 (Level 2) placements.  The U of A students are represented from coast to coast from Prince George, BC to Saint John, NB.  We are also pleased to be hosting students from Australia, U of M, Western, Queens, Dalhousie and the Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres to Alberta and Saskatchewan!  It is truly a collaborative effort to coordinate national and international placements and it all hinges on our great clinical community, so thank you!

For the U of A MScOT students, Level 2 placements are where they start to transition from "Knowledge Application" to "Reflection in Action".  They can not only make a plan for an assessment or intervention but also start to evaluate how and why things unfolded the way they did.  It can take students a while to wrap their heads around the fact that there may be more than one 'correct' answer and path to supporting our clients in participating in meaningful occupations. Preceptors start to move from 'teaching' to 'coaching' and can encourage students to come up with their own theories, providing input and suggestions they may not have considered.  There are several good preceptor resources on our Clinical Education section of the U of A OT Department website [ click here ].   Stay tuned for information on Preceptor Workshops later this spring!

Finally, it may seem like a long way away but we have begun to plan for spring and summer placements for the following courses:

• OccTh 525 (Level 1 - Year 1):  May 15-June 30, 2017 (7 weeks)
• OccTh 527 (Level 3A - Year 2):  July 4-August 18 (7 weeks).  These dates can be adjusted to accommodate preceptor holidays. 

If you would like to offer or discuss the possibility of having an OT student, please contact a member of our Clinical Education Team [ Contact information  ]

Stay warm, enjoy some winter activities (be that skiing or curling up in front of the fire!), and give us a call if you have anything you would like to discuss!