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Knowledge to practice: supporting school-based occupational therapy practitioners

The school-based occupational therapy practitioner's role is to support children and youth's participation in the school environment (Cahill, 2020). To do this, practitioners must use evidence-based practice, which includes being up to date and knowledgeable with current strategies, interventions, and understanding how to implement those with the resources available. Although the literature provides guidelines for the core components of evidence-based practice in the school setting (Cahill & Beisber, 2020), occupational therapists continue to face barriers with putting the evidence into practice (Seruya & Garfinkel, 2020; McCluskey & Lovarini, 2005). Barriers include time, access to paid journal articles, administrators' support, and knowledge of evidence- based practice (Seruya & Garfinkel, 2020; McCluskey & Lovarini, 2005).

To overcome the barriers, occupational therapy practitioners need access to professional development courses that support knowledge translation. Research shows that often times practitioners rely on traditional professional development courses, however, little research supports these formats in translating knowledge into practice. To support knowledge translation for occupational therapy practitioners who represent nearly one-fourth of all occupational therapists, professional development workshops need to move away from a traditional workshop format.

The course Knowledge to Practice: Supporting School-Based Occupational Therapy Practitioners (KTTPSOTP) is a cutting-edge professional development course, incorporating the most current adult learning principles (Dionyssopoulos, Karalis, & Panitsides, 2014; Duman, 2010; Gozuyesil & Dikici, 2014). The course's critical elements include brain-based learning techniques, peer interaction and collaboration, and hybrid format. By participating in this course, school-based occupational therapy practitioners will receive ongoing support, access to current literature supporting best practices, and crucial peer connections. This course will provide needed support to school-based practitioners while also serving as a blueprint to other professional development courses interested in evolving beyond the traditional format.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42570
Date14 May 2021
CreatorsWarwick, Tara
ContributorsPerkins, Natalie
Source SetsBoston University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis/Dissertation

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