Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate

This course provides therapeutic intervention via programming development, with concentration on community-based practice and populations.  There is a special emphasis on the needs of the elderly, health/wellness programs, the homeless, and the child and youth populations, home care programming and interventions, and community partner identification, development, and relationship cultivation.  Through the program development process, the student will learn, understand, and implement community programs for identified facilities and populations.

Administrative and organizational theory applied to occupational therapy service delivery.  Content includes personnel relationships and supervision, systems analysis, program planning, budgeting, space and facilities planning, communication, and programs for staff and student development.  The course also includes marketing, the professional association, national certification, state regulations, productivity, quality assurance, and an overview of ethics and legal issues.  All management and organizational topics are viewed within the perspective of the dynamics of the health care industry.

This course will examine emerging models of practice in the field. These will vary, based upon current Occupational Therapy theory, practice and service delivery models. In-depth exploration and understanding of current healthcare policies; social, demographic, and political issues driving the healthcare system; influences in delivery of services in OT. Informatics will be utilized as primary sources. Participants will examine new methods and settings in which to provide OT intervention and may apply these in a local agency or organization. Participants will also evaluate the effectiveness of these services and modify them as needed.

This course provides an overview of research design from the perspective of the hierarchy of levels of evidence. Students will examine common designs of studies from lowest to highest levels of evidence in terms of purpose of study, question formulation, methodological features and significance of findings for application in practice.

This is a course in the study of occupation performance analysis. Through various learning activities, students develop and communicate mechanisms to infuse a lifelong learning model to professional practice. This course will also examine the role of occupation in enhancing the health of populations through health promotion, health education and prevention of illness.

Capstone I is designed as a self-directed and professional exploration and development course of study. It is the stage that focuses the ppOTD student on where they are now; where they want to go, and how they will get there. During Capstone I the ppOTD student is laying the foundation for what comes next. A series of journals, annotations, and learning how to formulate objectives rounds out the beginning capstone course.

Capstone 2 is an extension of Capstone 1. The goal is to develop skill sets in a particular area (beyond that of a generalist level) as part of the process of formulating the objectives and completing the culminating Capstone project.

During this course, students complete a final project that demonstrates the synthesis of occupational therapy theory, evidence-based practice principles and advanced knowledge in a practice area. Students demonstrate skills of self-direction, self-sufficiency, independence and professionalism expected of therapists prepared at the doctoral level. The final component of the course requires the student to complete a professional written report and oral presentation.

This course will examine leadership roles, practices and ethical responsibilities as they relate to diverse organizational settings. Evolving leadership theories and styles will be explored as well as ethical dilemmas. Students will identify strategies for improving personal and professional responsive leadership efforts after analyzing their own leadership strengths. Self-reflection, self discovery, integrity, credibility as well as other leadership concepts and themes will influence this course.

This is a course for occupational therapists designed to develop essential skills for conducting evidence-based practice. It will focus in detail on appraising the internal, external, and statistical validity of evidence related to intervention effectiveness and predicting client outcomes. The course proceeds to examine evidence gathered using a variety of quantitative methods including group designs and meta-analytic approaches. Readings are selected from a variety of peer-reviewed journals related to health and disability to introduce students to the interdisciplinary literature that may provide valuable evidence for occupational therapy practice.

This course provides students with an introduction to health care change and examination of policies related to occupational therapy in the United States. Students will review the history of disability policy, and examine social, medical and political models and their influence on the delivery of health care and occupational therapy practice. An understanding of political process related to health care and major players in policy development will be explored along with the use of advocacy on micro and macro levels. Critical analysis of the use and impact of clinical outcome measures in occupational therapy and their effect on policy making will be covered.

This course will examine the foundations of adult learning as well as their application in educating the public and addressing health literacy. This course identifies the advanced practitioner’s role in various practice settings and the impact of ethical, political, legal, socio-cultural, and economic factors affecting programmatic goals. This course will explore personal teaching and learning styles and Boyer’s Scholarship of Teaching.