Description of occupational therapy fieldwork supervision at the University of the Free State

[摘要] English: Fieldwork education in Occupational Therapy provides students with theopportunity to integrate theory learned at higher institutions with practical skillsand professional behaviour within real-life settings to become proficientoccupational therapists. Fieldwork supervisors are the key role players andfacilitators in realising the purpose of fieldwork education. To this end,supervisors must exhibit effective characteristics of supervision in order toprovide quality and meaningful learning experiences for students. Concern hasbeen raised throughout literature about the characteristics that supervisorsdisplay during fieldwork placements, because it has such a major influence onstudents' learning and experiences of fieldwork education.Very little research has been done on fieldwork education of OccupationalTherapy in South Africa and none on the characteristics of supervisors andsupervision during fieldwork placements. This study aims to describe effectiveand ineffective characteristics of supervisors and supervision in OccupationalTherapy fieldwork education at the UFS as identified by third and fourth yearOccupational Therapy students and supervisors.These phenomena of supervisor and supervision characteristics have beenresearched in several qualitative studies internationally from either thesupervisors' or the students' perspective. In this study, a quantitative,descriptive study design was used to gather information about effective andineffective characteristics of supervisors and supervision during OccupationalTherapy fieldwork education. The data collection instruments implementedconsisted of two similar self-report questionnaires: one for the students and onefor the supervisors.The research population consisted of all the third and fourth year OccupationalTherapy students enrolled at the UFS in 2012 (a total of 69) as well as all thesupervisors involved in fieldwork training of these Occupational Therapystudents (a total of 41). The response rate for the students was 98.6% and forthe supervisors 100%. Effective supervision characteristics have been identified and described, withspecific emphasis on the main findings that reflect that a supervisor must becompetent, professional, approachable, considerate and knowledgeable aboutwhat is expected from the student and must spend adequate time with thestudent. Furthermore, the supervisor must provide sufficient guidelines, support,guidance and feedback. Results were reported according to the five categoriesused in the questionnaires, namely: interpersonal; curriculum; clinical andprofessional; feedback and environment. Ineffective supervision characteristicsidentified in this study were similar to those detected in international studies.This study clearly indicates that supervisors viewed the limited time they had tosupervise students as a major cause of ineffective supervising. Additionally,they had less than five years of supervision experience, which influenced theeffectiveness of their supervision characteristics negatively. An unexpectedfinding of this study was the indication by supervisors that students' attributes –whether positive or negative �?had been the biggest influence on thesupervision they provided during fieldwork education.In conclusion, extensive recommendations were made to redress the ineffectivecharacteristics of supervision identified in this study as it pertains to students,supervisors and the university. This study contributes to Occupational Therapy'sbody of knowledge with regard to supervision characteristics in fieldworkeducation in a South African setting, which can be used as a base for futureresearch.

[发布机构] University of the Free State