Professional Behaviors

A study completed by Campbell et al. (2015) looked at perspectives of fieldwork educators in regards to professional behaviors deemed as important for level II fieldwork students. The comprehensive list highlighted 6 main professional behavior attributes that scored as 100% essential, including:

• Adaptable
• Clinically competent
• Communication skills
• Ethical
• Responsible
• Time efficient

Other attributes included having interpersonal skills, being empathetic, creativity, and more. 

Transitioning from the Classroom to Fieldwork

An article focusing on understanding student readiness for fieldwork discovered many themes that fieldwork educators and academic educators look to support student readiness. Some of these include:

• Possessing multiple forms of knowledge – fieldwork educators value interpersonal skills and the purpose of theory in practice
• Professionalism as an intrinsic value and extrinsic behavior – student timeliness, attendance, and appropriate dress are extrinsic professionalism behaviors that fieldwork educators want to see. Intrinsic values include empathy, leadership, emotional intelligence, being open-minded, and receptive to feedback were important as well. 
• Context of learning – students should understand that what they learn in the classroom is a frame of reference to draw on in the clinic; it is not the exact way things will always be. Being able to adapt knowledge learned in the classroom and apply it to the fieldwork experience is an important skill
• Collaborative learning environment – including empathy in clinical reasoning with patients and being able to restructure the process of clinical reasoning in practice

(Karp, 2020)

Developing Clinical Reasoning

Clinical reasoning is an important skill that students will develop during their fieldwork rotations. A qualitative study of students and their perspectives on the development of clinical reasoning includes many skills and attributes such as:

• Knowing expectations – ask what is expected of you before and during fieldwork. This can include patient population, site policies, and expected caseloads.
• Feedback – feedback is essential in developing clinical reasoning. Many students rely on feedback from patients, staff, and their educator. Proactively ask for feedback to show that you are engaged and ready to learn.
• Collaboration – interprofessional and intraprofessional collaboration builds clinical reasoning. Learn from staff at your site to understand their role and how OTs can work with their profession. This is also a good time to advocate for the role of OT if it is less known at your site. 
• Hands-on Learning – assessments, intervention planning, grading the activities, and documenting with first-hand experience is an essential component of developing clinical reasoning. 
• Self-Reflection – this requires critical examination of yourself, your strengths, and your weaknesses in order to better your clinical reasoning skills. Asking for feedback, using emotional intelligence, and having self-insight are key components in self-reflection.

(Coviello et al., 2019)

Other ways to build your clinical reasoning skills include intervention planning, competing an activity analysis, asking questions to your fieldwork educator, learning how to chunk information about patients from their chart, and using a reflective journal (Coviello et al., 2019).

Additional Resources

• The Best OT Student Resources by Sarah Lyon, OTR/L provides an overview of ways to stay organized, prepare for fieldwork, study for the NBCOT and more
• AOTA offers:
  • Student Resources for members
  • Practice Guidelines you can review before your fieldwork rotations
• FLOTEC has general OT Resources, a resource page specific to Students, and Blog posts
• CommunOT, an online forum for members that has a specific student page to ask questions, chat with peers, and more