Queensland Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Collaborative, Section Two : Getting Started

Section Two : Getting Started

Part of orientation is about knowing where to begin and how to pitch your information delivery. It is important that you make some time with the student to find out about their prior levels of experience and learning, their interests, and the expectations they have when they arrive at your centre.

A student will bring to the placement:

expectations - of you, the clients, the organisation and what they hope to learn
a level of cognitive development - problem-solving ability
knowledge of occupational therapy frames of reference/models
their personal learning goals
an idea of what constitutes fair and reasonable assessment
developing clinical reasoning skills

(Fitzgerald, 2007, March) The student will also undoubtedly be nervous and bring with them a level of anxiety, so it is a good idea to take some time on the first day to sit down with the student, perhaps over a cuppa, and informally get to know a bit about them, and also to tell them about yourself, your experiences and practice areas, so as to set them at ease with you.

You don't have to launch into information giving and heavy orientation straight away!

Once a level of rapport and ease with one another has begun building you can get stuck into the orientation program. Here are some steps to walk you through student orientation.

Next ---> Step 1: Orientating the Student

» Step 1: Orientating the Student
Now is the time to start working through that orientation checklist you have prepared! Perhaps start with orientation to department, introductions to work colleagues/staff, a tour of facilities and the greater service layout, then orientating to ser...

» Step 2: Clarify Your Expectations to the Student
Walk the student through the placement learning program, clarifying what the expectations will be of student professional behaviour, skill development, communication and self-management and also about cultural norms and practices of your work centre...

» Step 3: Review the Student Learning Plan
As mentioned in Section One, it is important that time during the orientation period is dedicated to developing and negotiating with the student their learning plan containing specific personal learning goals. The student m...