Experiential Education in Advocacy for Occupational Therapy Students: Didactic Approaches and Learning Outcomes

Resumen de los autores

Advocacy is a foundational value in occupational therapy, but uniformity in teaching and learning advocacy is lacking. This paper proposes and reports on the implementation of an advocacy course based on experiential education. The objective of the study was to evaluate student learning after an advocacy course with an experiential education component using an open-ended survey design. Participants were occupational therapy doctoral students, and the setting was a course taught in a health sciences university. Students voluntarily completed a four-item anonymous survey after participating in an experiential advocacy course. Written responses were coded into themes using an inductive approach. The primary themes identified were knowledge, skills learned, levels of comfort and intimidation, and motivation and self-efficacy. Before the course, students consistently indicated a lack of knowledge or skills, feeling uncomfortable and intimidated with policy and advocacy, and lacking the self-efficacy to affect advocacy outcomes. After the course, the students indicated a general increase in knowledge and familiarity with the advocacy process, feeling comfortable advocating because of their increased knowledge, and an increased interest in the advocacy process. Analysis of student responses after the advocacy course indicated increased student interest, confidence, and ability to engage in legislative advocacy. Because client well-being and scope of practice depend on occupational therapists having strong advocacy skills, students need to engage in experiential learning to acquire these skills. This study demonstrates students lacked skills and confidence related to advocacy but were able to learn those skills through an experiential advocacy course. We argue the observed transition from lack of ability to confidence and comfort was only possible through the experiential learning component.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Bonsall, A., Wolf, R. L., & Saffer, A. (2023). Experiential Education in Advocacy for Occupational Therapy Students: Didactic Approaches and Learning Outcomes. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1456192