Abstract
Purpose: The provision of undergraduate clinical placements to support Allied Health education has always been a challenge. However, in the last few years, the mismatch between undergraduate students and available placements has become acute. This paper describes how an undergraduate occupational therapy programme and a Metropolitan Council provider of social services worked together to overcome these challenges. The aim was to enhance inter-institutional cooperation and placement educator support and to increase placement opportunities. Method: A series of meetings between the university and the host institution identified barriers and opportunities to placement expansion. For the host institution, these included the absence of centralised placement coordination, a lack of trained educators and the university’s ill-defined, complex and time-consuming placement paperwork. The university lacked an understanding of how the needs of social services differed from the more numerous and traditional NHS providers and were frustrated as to how the host institution organised placements and addressed issues such as failing students. Students for whom English was not their first language often struggled to understand English as spoken in the local vernacular, and additional support for this group was identified. Subsequent inter-institutional collaborations resulted in the establishment of new roles, support pathways, improved processes and the creation of a new communication skills programme. Results: The host institution was able to increase placement provision from the historically low number of one student per year to 21 in the first year of implementation, 30 in the second year and 34 in the third year. Staff at the host institution also reported better-prepared students and increased staff satisfaction. Conclusion: Issues related to low placement uptake were multifactorial but can be summarised as a failure of both organisations to understand, from the other’s perspective, the unique needs, challenges and historical imperatives that underpin the collective activity of fieldwork education. This paper and the innovations described demonstrated how a multifaceted approach involving role creation, process development, and strengthened inter-organisational relationships can significantly enhance educator support and placement capacity. The approach described can serve as a model for other institutions facing similar challenges.
Recommended Citation
Fitzgerald M, Antich B, Grimwood E. Increasing Clinical Placements for Occupational Therapy in a Social Services Setting: Innovations for Practice. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. 2025 Jul 28;23(3), Article 26.
