Preparing occupational therapy students for practice placements: Initial evidence

Abstract

Practice placements are a crucial part of occupational therapy education, yet they can be a stressful experience for students, practice placement educators and the university. This may contribute to a shortage of placements. The effectiveness of a 4-week preparation with second-level full-time students at Brunel University, prior to a practice placement was evaluated by a two-part analysis. First, the students’ perspective on the effectiveness of the preparation is presented. This is followed by a comparison of placement grades between the current cohort of students (academic year 2006-2007), who attended the preparation and the previous cohort of students (academic year 2005-2006), who did not have this opportunity.