The Essential Guide to Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Education: Resources for Today's Educators and Practitioners

Fieldwork provides a valuable opportunity in occupational therapy to mentor and learn from students, promote the profession and contribute to its growth, document best practices, and increase professional development. This comprehensive, user-friendly manual--more than 60 chapters in 14 parts--provides the latest information, policies, and concepts affecting occupational therapy fieldwork education today. Each section begins with an introduction by a leader in fieldwork education--which succinctly ties together the vast knowledge presented.

Experienced practitioners will find the updated materials useful for resolving challenging fieldwork situations. Those taking a student for the first time will see the "big picture" of preparing the profession's next practitioners. Clinical department managers and student coordinators will learn how to prepare a student fieldwork manual for clinical sites and educate staff about the changes in education over the past 10 years. Academic fieldwork coordinators, whose job it is to pull the entire fieldwork experience together and make it work, will find new ideas to try and resources to share will colleagues. New academic fieldwork coordinators can use this guide to "get up to speed" quickly.

Includes a CD-ROM containing a sample fieldwork manual.

Donna M. Costa, MS, OTR/L, is academic fieldwork coordinator and clinical assistant professor in the Occupational Therapy Program at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. She has been an occupational therapist for more than 30 years, having practiced as an educator, hospital administrator, occupational therapy practitioner, and clinical fieldwork supervisor.