Approaches to improving student performance on fieldwork.

This or/ide IPUS acce/J/!!d lur /JUbIiC(l/ir)17 }/I/I' I~ 1994 F ieldwork is an lmportant aspect of occupational therapy education. It proVides an opportunity for students to cJemonstrate their understanding of didactic classroom material by aprlying their knowledge in;] controlled pr;]ctice setting with sU[lervision. Students must demonstrate an acceptahle level of clinical skill by meeting preset behavioral objectives in order to complete their occu rational therapy education and become eligible to take the certification examination. It would seem logical that students who do well in their academic studies would do well in their clinical performance. However, in numerous studies, no correlation between academic and clinical performance has been found (Anderson & Jantzen, 1965; Englehart, 1957; Ford, 1979; Katz & Mosey, 1980; Lind, 1970; Mann & Banasiak, 1985). Our experience as educators has concurred with this research. Although most students who demonstrate good academic performance succeed in the clinical setting, the few who have had problems on their fieldwork experiences tended to stand out. To gain further insight into problems encountered by the students who experienced difficulty on fieldwork, we used a case study approach as suggested by Mann and Banasiak (1985) to examine several cases. One theme surfaced consistently: students who had difficulty engaging in the supervisory process encountered problems more frequently than other Students during their fieldwork exreriences. These students generally did not accept responsibility for their behavior and did not respond well to feedback. Supervision plays an important rart in the continuing growth and development of all occupational therapists (American Occupational Therapy Association, 1994; Haiman, 1992). Hughes and Opacich (1990) reported that the ability to take re,'iponsihilitv for one"s own behavior is an important asrect in developing appmpriate pmfessional behaviors. In this article we present two case studies that illustrate the tvre of l)nlhlems encountered hv students on fieldwork ami the intervention process used b\' academic and clinical supervisors to handle the problems. Each demonstrates a different outcome to intervention. As background information, our program requires three Level I experiences and two Level Ii exreriences with an ortional third Level II experience.