Student Coping Strategies and Perceptions of Fieldwork

Abstract

A questionnaire, the revised Ways of Coping Checklist, was sent to all professional (entry-level) graduate students in the United States in one academic year during their second fieldwork level II experience to determine what coping strategies they used during their fieldwork experience. Information was also gathered regarding their perceptions of this clinical experience. Responses from 101 students showed that they used Problem-Focused and Seeks Social Support strategies more than Wishful Thinking, Blamed Self, or Avoidance strategies. More than half of the students found the experience to be stressful, and almost all agreed that it was important. Most agreed that they had control over their present circumstances in the fieldwork experience.

OT Practitioners’ and OT Students’ Perceptions of Entry-Level Competency for Occupational Therapy Practice

“…The fact that the OT students rated so many items as highly important is noteworthy. These results have some similarities to the findings of a study of OT Level II FW students' coping strategies that was conducted by Mitchell and Kampfe (1993). This study indicated that a common stressor among OT students is the perception that they should not make mistakes in knowledge or skill performance while on FW.…”

Peer Learning on Fieldwork Placements

“…Mitchell and Kampfe (1993) also found that students used peer support as a method of coping with stress on fieldwork. This was especially true for those for whom this was a new type of placement:…”

Exploring Connections Between Theory and Practice: Stories From Fieldwork Supervisors

“…Most articles were program descriptions and were not focused on an examination of practices from a research perspective. These articles describe models of practice (Hengel & Romeo, 1995;Herge & Milbourne, 1999;Farrow, 2000;Jung, 2002;Nolinske, 1995;Mackenzie, 2002;Sabari, 1985;Schemm & Bross, 1995), ways that students cope with the fleldwork experience (Evenson, Barnes, & Cohn, 2002;Mitchell & Kampfe, 1993), or provide strategies to help supervisors address student needs (Ilott, 1995, Mackenzie, 2001. Bondoc (2005), searching for research in occupational therapy educational practices, found "a scant amount of research with low levels of methodological quality" (p. 2).…”