Occupational Therapy Commons^™

Enhancing Interprofessional Collaboration Through Occupational Therapy-Led Stress Reduction Intervention During Post Mass Casualty Simulation Debriefing Process, Benjamin Gross, Katherine Jones, Jennifer Radziak, Ralph C. Bay, Sue Dahl-Popolizio

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine whether an occupational therapist (OT) led stress reduction intervention, implemented as part of an interprofessional education initiative, could be integrated into a mass casualty simulation and whether it was effective in reducing self-reported stress among healthcare students. Methods: A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used following an interdisciplinary mass casualty simulation involving first-year Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and Physician Assistant (PA) students (N=190). After a standard educational debriefing, participants engaged in a 25-minute OT-led stress reduction session consisting of structured, activity-based strategies. A retrospective pretest survey administered …

Occupational Therapy Students’ Demonstration Of Interprofessional Competencies During Simulation: An Observational Analysis, Elizabeth Crampsey, Shelley Cohen Konrad, Debra J. Ford

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Quality care and patient safety are primary goals in health care, with interprofessional collaboration as a crucial strategy to achieve them. This study reports the behavioral outcomes of Occupational Therapy (OT) students applying core competencies, like Communication and Teamwork, during a longitudinal case-based team simulation activity designed to enhance interprofessional education (IPE). The activity was designed to improve implementation of IPE competencies during a collaborative teamwork exercise with standardized patients. A content analysis using the Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR) assessed 21 graduate OT students’ deployment of IPE core competencies while participating in a semester-long interprofessional simulation (Sim-IPE) activity. Findings …

Evaluating Interprofessional And Cultural Competency: A Community-Mental Health Interprofessional Education Event, Megan A. Whitbeck, Carrie A. Griffiths, William F. Miller, Laura M. Skoronski Chavez, Krisy Elrod, Autumn M. Forgione, Anna L. Grippi, John P. Merchant

Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Collaboration

Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of a mental health focused interprofessional education (IPE) event, where undergraduate and graduate students from four different healthcare disciplines collaboratively completed a case study activity, that included diversity and mental health components.

Methods: A quasi-experimental, one-group pretest–posttest design was used. Participants included 72 undergraduate and graduate students from nursing, occupational therapy, health administration, and counseling programs at a private university. Students engaged in a structured team-based activity emphasizing communication, collaboration, and cultural responsiveness in a mental health care context. Self-reported measures included the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) and the Cultural …

Transformative Paths: Advancing Inclusive Healthcare Education, Morgan Young

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2026

Transgender individuals continue to experience significant healthcare disparities, provider bias, discrimination, and barriers to accessing affirming healthcare services (White Hughto et al., 2015; World Professional Association for Transgender Health [WPATH], 2022). Despite increasing awareness of these disparities, healthcare education often lacks comprehensive training related to gender-affirming care (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2021; Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], n.d.; White Hughto et al., 2015). A concurrent scoping review was conducted to answer the research question: Among healthcare providers, how do educational strategies grounded in transgender perspectives and lived experiences affect provider competence in transgender healthcare? The review …

Building Self-Perceived Confidence Through Occupational Therapy And Nursing Student Peer Teaching, Jennifer A. Tokash, Melissa Nolan, Jamie Bittiger, Jessica Wagoner, John Damiao, Michelle Lopez

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Peer teaching, which is student-to-student instruction, has emerged as a promising pedagogical strategy in higher education, yet it remains underexplored in health professions curricula. While traditional professor-led instruction remains the predominant model, peer teaching may offer comparable or enhanced outcomes, particularly in fostering students’ self-perceived confidence and active learning. This study examined the impact of peer teaching on nursing students’ self-perceived confidence in applying ergonomic principles and performing safe patient handling techniques, as instructed by occupational therapy students. Additionally, the study assessed occupational therapy students’ self-perceived confidence in measuring vital signs following instruction provided by nursing students. Using a quasi-experimental …

Precision Education In Health Sciences Education: A Call-To-Action For Developing An Interprofessional Strategy, Arvie Vitente, Jennifer Bosworth, Robert Sweet, Rebecca Cozzi, Christopher Galloway, Piotr Szczurek, Melanie Obispo-Young, Eron Bozec, Erica Brkovic, Tina Bobo, Jennifer Lubinski

Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy

Introduction. Growing learner diversity, expanding biomedical knowledge, and rapid clinical digitization have exposed the limits of on-size-fits-all health sciences training. Competency-Based Education (CBE) has sharpened the focus on outcomes, yet many programs still move learners through fixed sequences, infrequent assessments, and retrospective remediation. Precision Education (PE) offers a complementary, data-enabled approach that uses learning analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and continuous feedback loops. Embedded within CBE, PE converts competencies from static milestones into dynamic trajectories that can be measured, visualized, and adjusted in real time across the curriculum. This abstract highlights the need for an interprofessional strategy to design, fund, and …

Meeting Interprofessional Education Competencies Through A Multi-Scene Standardized Patient Simulation: A Pilot Study, Joanna Behm, Kristen Slabaugh, Karen Burket

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose. Healthcare is increasingly delivered by teams of diverse disciplines. Interprofessional education for healthcare students is essential so that when students enter their respective fields, they come prepared with experience in interdisciplinary communication, teamwork, and communication. Accreditation and regulatory requirements for health professions programs have also increased the focus on interprofessional collaboration, requiring programs to be creative in finding effective and efficient integration methods. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify the perceived impact of an interprofessional collaboration event on enhancing students’ interprofessional education competency attainment. Methods. An interprofessional collaboration committee created a multi-scene, unfolding case study …

Interprofessional Education Program For Parkinson's Disease Care Considerations, Jennifer Nunez, Cassandra Nelson

Spring 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

Research suggests that having interprofessional education for disease-specific care can improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. This program focused on providing a basic IPE program to rural hospital staff of various disciplines on the care considerations for individuals with Parkinson's Disease when they are hospitalized. Using an occupational therapy vantage point, the program was created to address increasing occupational performance for healthcare workers and individuals with Parkinson's Disease. Topics included in the program were motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms, medication management, mobility and ADLs, cognition, mental health, sleep, dietary patterns, dysphagia, and voice.

Interprofessional Education And Collaboration In The Philippines: Current Landscape, Gaps, And Propositions, Arvie Vitente, Michael Sy, Reeva Ann Sumulong, Anna Causapin, Jocel Regino

Rehabilitation Sciences Department Faculty Articles

Interprofessional education (IPE) is a forward-looking strategy in healthcare education that unites students and professionals from various disciplines to enhance interprofessional collaboration (IPC). IPE is designed to prepare future health and social care professionals to navigate and address the complexities of modern healthcare systems. In the Philippines, despite being a developing country with a fragmented healthcare system, there have been efforts over the last 15 to 20 years to introduce and institutionalize IPE and IPC in both higher education and healthcare settings. However, significant challenges persist, including the dominance of medical professionals, inadequate regulatory mechanisms, and a lack of strong …

Interprofessional Education And Collaboration In The Philippines: Current Landscape, Gaps, And Propositions, Arvie Vitente, Michael Sy, Reeva Ann Sumulong, Anna Karerina Causapin, Jocel Regino

Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy

Interprofessional education (IPE) is a forward-looking strategy in healthcare education that unites students and professionals from various disciplines to enhance interprofessional collaboration (IPC). IPE is designed to prepare future health and social care professionals to navigate and address the complexities of modern healthcare systems. In the Philippines, despite being a developing country with a fragmented healthcare system, there have been efforts over the last 15 to 20 years to introduce and institutionalize IPE and IPC in both higher education and healthcare settings. However, significant challenges persist, including the dominance of medical professionals, inadequate regulatory mechanisms, and a lack of strong …

Speech-Language Pathology And Occupational Therapy Students’ Perceptions Of An Interprofessional Stroke Workshop: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Casey Keck, Ashley Lankford, Danika Pfeiffer, Alexandra Durfee, Rachel Guilfoyle

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Stroke rehabilitation often necessitates coordinated intervention services; however, few studies have examined stroke-based interprofessional education (IPE) interventions for graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) and occupational therapy (OT) students. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine graduate SLP and OT students' interprofessional collaboration competence before, immediately, and several months after participating in an IPE stroke workshop. Participants were 38 SLP and 14 OT students who took part in a 2-hour case study workshop, completed an online survey, and participated in a 1-hour virtual focus group. Four months later, students were asked to complete the survey again to assess the …

Parkinson’S Optimal Wellness And Educational Resource (Power) Project, Christina Mcfadden

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2025

By 2030, over 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are predicted to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD), with Pennsylvania exhibiting a notably high incidence (Parkinson’s Foundation, 2023; Willis et al., 2022). Despite this prevalence, non-specialist clinicians, policymakers, and the public generally remain poorly informed in adequately supporting PD (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022). There is a gap within the literature regarding occupational therapy’s (OT) role in community-based PD programming in the U.S. The Parkinson’s Optimal Wellness and Educational Resource (POWER) Project addresses this through a tertiary health approach as identified in the WHO’s Parkinson’s technical brief (2022). Informed by …

Know More Falling: Community-Based Fall Prevention, Edward R. Mcwithey

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2025

The aging population is expected to grow to 2 billion worldwide by 2050 (Rosado et al., 2021). Aging is classified as a determinant risk factor for falls and fall-related injuries (Rosado et al., 2021). This capstone project aimed to promote understanding and address fall prevention in the older adult population with multiple stakeholders throughout the Dallas, Pennsylvania community. Project goals included developing community partnerships, providing education and addressing wellness and health equity among community-dwelling older adults through multifaceted interventions. The literature search yielded a synthesis and analysis of current evidence focused on community-based fall programming, adding to the body of …

Breaking Down Silos: Creating And Implementing A Longitudinal Interprofessional Education Curriculum For Graduate Health Science Professional Students, Robert Wellmon, Jill D. Black, Wendy Wachter-Schutz, Kathleen M. Youse, Adrienne N. Pinckney, Lori L. Felker

Health Professions Education

Background. Accreditation standards for graduate health professional programs require the inclusion of interprofessional learning and collaboration (IPL/C) activities in entry-level curricula. This implementation necessitates collaboration among educators from multiple disciplines and openness to innovation and to educate students in a manner that breaks down uni-professional curriculum silos that are known barriers to the creation of meaningful IPL experiences.

Objective. The purpose of this paper is to describe one institution’s process for creating a longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum that aligns with accreditation mandates and meets the call to foster IPC competency skills.

Methods. Widener University established an interprofessional thread of …

Barriers And Facilitators To Enhance Interprofessional Education For Rehabilitation Science Graduate Students, Mary A. Riopel, Kimberly Wynarczuk, Taylor Grube

The Qualitative Report

Interprofessional education (IPE) aims to develop healthcare practitioners who work effectively in teams, demonstrate strong communication skills, respect others, and have a working knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of other professionals. Of identified research to date, it is unclear what students perceive as important for effective IPE delivery and learning. The purpose of this study was to identify graduate students' perceptions of facilitators and barriers to learning interprofessional practice using phenomenology. Three semi-structured focus groups were conducted including athletic training, occupational therapy, or speech-language pathology students and the transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged about IPE …

Qualitative Evaluation Of Interprofessional Education Experiential Learning (Ipeel) For Health Professional Students, Kelle Deboth Foust, Madalynn Wendland, John Schaefer, Suzanne Giuffre, Donald Allensworth-Davies

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Interprofessional education (IPE) is critical for health professional students to form professional identities and develop collaborative skills. Although accrediting bodies mandate incorporating IPE, the effects of IPE programming on health professional students and the best pedagogical approach for achieving desirable outcomes are still unclear. In addition, specific effects of IPE within the context of experiential learning are not fully understood. That is, the literature has not presented a clear framework for structuring IPE programs, nor have outcome measures for IPE utilizing experiential learning (IPEEL) been established. The purpose of this study was to complete a grounded theory qualitative analysis of …

Enhancing Health Professions Students’ Attitudes And Self-Efficacy To Care For Unhoused Populations, Jacob T. Greenfield, Brad Phillips, Kathryn L. Hoffman, Gina M. Baugh

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Health professions students, including occupational therapy students, often have limited exposure to unhoused populations, which may alter their attitudes and self-efficacy to participate in their care. In turn, this could reduce access and quality of care for these marginalized groups. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a phased multimodal learning approach on interprofessional health sciences students’ attitudes and self-efficacy in providing care to unhoused individuals. A pre-posttest single group design was used to evaluate a didactic presentation, poverty simulation, and street-based experiential learning experience. Findings revealed significant differences in students’ (N=257) attitudes and self-efficacy in …

Enhancing Student Perceptions Of The Role Of Occupational Therapy In The Intensive Care Unit: An Interprofessional Simulation, Elizabeth Yost, Julie Jacob, Denise Campbell, Nicholas Prush, Leslie M. Smith

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Early mobility in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can improve a multitude of patient outcomes, and occupational therapists (OTs) play a valuable role as part of the interprofessional team, with the ability to address activities of daily living, functional cognition, psychological and communication needs, and more. In 2022, the first iteration of an ICU interprofessional education simulation (Sim-IPE) yielded poor outcomes for OT students. This study aimed to modify existing pre-learning activities in the Sim-IPE’s second iteration to improve OT students’ perceptions and professional role awareness in interprofessional ICU care. Students from Doctor of OT, Bachelor of Science Nursing, Doctor …

A Model For Interprofessional Education Between Occupational Therapy And Accounting Students: A Mixed-Methods Study, Angela Lampe, Brenda Coppard, Alison Maloy, Yongyue Qi

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

This interprofessional education (IPE) project was designed to prepare students to work and lead in an increasingly complex healthcare environment. The purpose of this project is to describe and measure accounting and occupational therapy students’ perception and value of participating in an IPE learning activity and how the activity enriched the learning environment and identified gaps of knowledge to improve teaching. A mixed methods pre- post-survey design was used to collect quantitative data from a modified version of the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS-9a) from 115 occupational therapy and 21 accounting students. Qualitative data was collected from a post-survey …

Designing A Conceptual Framework To Align Learning Objectives To The Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies: A Narrative Review, Norman C. Belleza, Maureen E. Johnson

Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy

Introduction: Early placement of interprofessional education (IPE) in academic curricula may foster foundational learning to shape student attitudes, knowledge, and skills and better prepare practice-ready clinicians for future team-based collaboration. The purpose of this narrative review was to investigate and analyze the current use of IPE in OT and PT higher education.

Methods: Three databases, Academic Search Complete, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and ERIC, were searched from 2017 to 2022. Inclusion criteria were articles with full text availability, published within the 5 year search time range from the time of the narrative review process, peer reviewed studies, …

Health Profession Students' Interprofessional Socialization And Values Toward A College-Based Virtual Interprofessional Education Activity, Denise Claiborne, Praveen Durgampudi, Anne C. Dumadag, Emily J. Hawkins, Patricia Laverdure, Amy Laurie Meeker, Barbara Kraj, Angela Wilson, Muge Akpinar-Elci

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose: The inclusion of interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for the health professions curricula and establishes the expectation of collaborative patient-centered care. The COVID-19 pandemic has required educators to develop innovative methods for IPE student engagement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a college-based virtual IPE activity for first-year health profession students and measure their interprofessional socialization and values (ISVS) toward IPE teams. The validated interprofessional socialization and valuing scales (ISVS-9A/9B) were used.

Methods: A one-group pre-post-test design examined health profession students' ISVS from seven health programs before and after a virtual IPE activity. The IPE activity was …

Evaluating Communication And Collaboration Among Healthcare Students, Lisa J. Knecht-Sabres, Daniel Provencher, Kristy Luciano, Sarah Zera, Susanne Higgins, Dana Lingle, Patricia A. Higgins, Charlotte Bolch

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if the Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR): Communication and Collaboration Dimensions would demonstrate good inter-rater reliability and be a useful and efficient tool to evaluate professional communication and collaboration between occupational therapy (OT) and physician assistant (PA) students. An additional aim of this study was to assess students’ thoughts, perceptions, and perceived value regarding these types of interprofessional opportunities. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used. An interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) examined the inter-rater reliability of the instrument for both faculty raters (n = 7) and standardized patient (SP) raters …

Validating The Assessing Student Competence And Knowledge Of Social Determinants Of Health (Asck-Sdh) Instrument, Whitney Lucas Molitor, Moses N. Ikiugu, Leah M. Stade, Jana L. Wardian

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The impact of the social determinants of health (SDH) on health outcomes is receiving increased attention. Health profession students need to learn about SDH; however, there are no validated tools to measure student competence in assessing SDH. There is a need for a brief, valid instrument to measure student competency and knowledge of SDH. This study is a secondary analysis of data collected pre (N=394) and post (N=387) for an interprofessional learning event. We utilized principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to determine the internal structure of the tool. The original measure consisted of 11 items; the analysis resulted …

Impact Of Community-Based Go Baby Go Project On Interprofessional Collaboration, Sapna Chakraborty, Marc Willey, Lisa Proctor

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPEC) are essential components of healthcare teams in the United States. This study aimed to explore the impact of a community-based Go Baby Go (GBG) project that used assistive technology and environmental adaptation skills to provide interprofessional education and hands-on collaboration between occupational therapy and speech-language pathology graduate students. The interprofessional collaboration (IPC) experiences provided to graduate students were centered on shared lectures and labs on role delineation, evaluation, and treatment focused on modifications through assistive technology and environmental adaptation. The culminating experience included labs with three to four students from each discipline in a …

The Use Of Interprofessional Education (Ipe) To Address Collaboration For Individualized Education Plans (Ieps): A Retrospective Study Of Occupational Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, And Special Education Students’ Perceptions, Kristina Curro, Lisa Shooman, Sue Foo

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The purpose of this project is to measure the effects of interprofessional education (IPE) on the perceptions of preservice professionals’ development of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The preservice professionals (PSPs) participants included master’s students from speech language pathology (SLP), occupational therapy (OT) and special education (SPED) programs (N = 78). The primary project goals were to examine the perceptions of the participants’ roles and knowledge on a multidisciplinary education team, their perceptions of the collaborative process, and their familiarity with the IEP development process. A mixed-methods, retrospective, cross-sectional investigation was used to obtain quantitative and qualitative outcomes. A …

Effect Of Simulation Learning On Graduate Student Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Teams And The Team Approach To Care, Norman Cadiz Belleza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to health care reports, more than 250,000 deaths annually are attributed to medical error, prompting interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives as one way to improve healthcare delivery. The problem is that little is known about the effect of simulation learning with standardized patients on occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) students’ attitudes toward IPE. The purpose of this causal-comparative study using a pretest–posttest nonequivalent control group design was to investigate the difference in posttest scores on the Students’ Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education—Version 2 (SPICE-R2) between first-term graduate OT and PT students who participated in a simulation and those …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Pediatric Interprofessional Education (Ipe) Experience For Occupational And Physical Therapy Graduate Students, Lorry Liotta-Kleinfeld, Nancy Darr, Tamara Lemmonds, Teresa Plummer

Funded Scholarship

Interprofessional competence is needed to improve health care outcomes. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of theoretically grounded interprofessional education (IPE) experiences to advance interprofessional competencies for occupational and physical therapy doctoral students. In addition, a pretest/postest survey was designed to determine the participants’ perceptions of knowledge attainment, roles, and attitudes. Two cohorts of students (N=115) completed surveys pre and post IPE experiences. Statistically significant changes were found on perception of roles and knowledge attainment. Additional studies are needed to determine if IPE leads to behavioral changes in practice and improves patient outcomes.

Development Of Learning Materials To Address Social And Medical Factors Impacting A Minoritized Population, Whitney Lucas Molitor, Moses N. Ikiugu, Ranelle Nissen, Mejai Avoseh, Denyelle Kenyon, Sabina Kupershmidt

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Health outcomes are multi-factorial. Health professionals must weigh all factors when making recommendations and providing intervention, however, limited learning materials which describe the health of minoritized populations exist for students in health science educational programs, necessitating the development of content for interprofessional learning that address the health factors experienced by underserved populations. This study used a descriptive design. Eleven expert content reviewers from eight health science and medical professions were recruited and provided feedback on the quality and content of a developed case study that described the lifestyle and health status of an individual from an ethnic minoritized population. Participants …

Implementation And Efficacy Of Interprofessional Education (Ipe) Initiatives, Javed A. Mohammed

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

The literature demonstrates many benefits of interprofessional education (IPE) simulations in various types of formats that facilitate greater student knowledge and understanding of professions outside their own (O’Hara et al., 2018; Clauser et al., 2020; Cooper, Spencer-Dawe & Mclean, 2005; Djukic et al., 2015; Lazinski et al., 2021). The goals of my doctoral capstone experience (DCE) were to: 1) Develop IPE curriculum and active learning sessions along with assessment plans for professional programs on the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) – Tampa Bay Regional Campus with emphasis on advocacy for the occupational therapy (OT) profession, 2) Lead educational opportunities for students …

Insights From An Inaugural Eight-Month Interprofessional Collaborative Co-Design Educational Experience Between Occupational Therapy And Industrial Design, Rebecca Brown, Kimberly S. Mollo, Madalyn Peterson, Mikael Avery, Eric Schneider, Tod Corlett

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

The design of the built environment greatly impacts how all types of individuals and populations actively participate in their daily lives. Lack of access in the built environment for disabled populations remains a daily reality, negatively impacting engagement and life satisfaction, leading to isolation, loneliness, and depression. A university in the Northeastern United States sought to expand current constructs of the end-user and environment within a universal design (UD) perspective. On an eight-month inaugural interprofessional collaborative co-design experience, third-year occupational therapy doctoral (OTD) students were embedded in a first-year masters of industrial design (MSID) curriculum, which ran the course of …