Teaching Effectiveness: Preparing Occupational Therapy Students for Clinical Practice

Abstract

Medical educators must examine the ability of teaching methodologies to prepare students for clinical practice. Two types of assessment methods commonly used in medical education include the Short Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and the Integrated Performance Procedural Instrument (IPPI). The use of these methods in occupational therapy (OT) education is less understood. With the increasing number of students enrolled in programs, faculty face challenges to examine how clinical competence is established using data to determine teaching effectiveness. This study examines two educational methodologies used in OT curriculum: the long written case study (IPPI) and short performance-based OSCE. The authors describe the effectiveness of each examination as it relates to student performance in clinical practice (as measured by the Fieldwork Performance Evaluation [FWPE]). The findings obtained from separate focus group sessions with faculty and students further provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the educational methodologies.