The relationships among clinical outcomes, academic success, and predictors used to screen applicants for entrance into a Master in Occupational Therapy Program (MOT) were examined. The dependent variables were grade point average in occupational therapy courses (OT-GPA), client therapy outcomes at the clinic, and ratings of MOT students by Level II Fieldwork supervisors. Predictor variables included undergraduate GPA, scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and an essay. Both undergraduate GPA and scores on the GRE were found to predict OT-GPA. The analytical section of the GRE was also positively correlated with fieldwork supervisors' ratings of students.
Occupational therapists working in home care have an advantage over those working in other settings because they can observe the influence of the naturalistic context on task performance. However, to use this advantage, therapists working in home care must use an evaluation approach that enables them to capture the client-task-context transaction. In this article, we discuss the ability of four "evaluation approaches"--norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, dynamic, informal--to provide information about the client-task-context transaction that therapists need in order to plan effective intervention. The potential of each approach for identifying clients' performance problems, suggesting etiologies, determining rehabilitation potential, and guiding intervention is analyzed, and the appropriateness of each approach for application in the home is appraised. This analysis highlights the utility of combining the criterion-referenced and dynamic assessment approaches for use in home care. A sequential process for integrating these two approaches is provided, and the proposed outcomes to be obtained from this process are identified.
The need for gerontic occupational therapists is increasing as the number of elders increases. The practice of including gerontologic content in occupational therapy entry-level curricula is relatively new. This article provides a rationale for including gerontologic content in entry-level occupational therapy curricula and presents the results of a brief survey conducted in November 1990 of all accredited and developing entry-level professional occupational therapy programs in the United States. Seventy-one percent of the entry-level programs responded. All of the responding programs included some gerontologic content in their curricula, and 82% of the responding programs indicated that the amount of gerontologic content in the required curriculum had increased in the past 5 years. Other gerontologic elements examined were courses offered and topics included in entry-level curricula, textbooks used, and gerontic fieldwork requirements.
The psychometric properties of the Fieldwork Evaluation for the Occupational Therapist were examined, in particular the evidence supporting the independent use of the performance, attitude, and judgment scales to determine suitability for entry-level work. High levels of internal consistency were found on all of the scales and on the Evaluation as a whole, a reflection of the high correlations among items. A factor analysis was performed that suggested that the Evaluation primarily measures a single factor.
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