Developing Occupational Therapy Competencies

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists Developing competencies for

occupa3onal therapy educa3on and prac3ce

Nils Erik Ness •  Programme Coordinator Standards and Quality World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists (WFOT)

•  Associate Professor, HiST, Norway

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists Developing competencies for occupa3onal therapy educa3on and prac3ce

•  Competencies – What are competencies? – Why are competencies important? – How to develop competencies? – OT competencies

•  Resources

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists

Gree3ngs from the World Federa3on of Occupa3onal Therapists -‐ the key interna*onal representa*ve for occupa*onal therapy and occupa*onal therapists

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists represents 69 member organisa*ons

worldwide and over 350,000 occupa*onal therapists

Argen*na Australia Austria Bangladesh Belgium Brazil Canada Chile Columbia Czech Republic

Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Iceland India Indonesia

Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kenya Republic of Korea Latvia Malaysia

Malta Mauri*us Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Pakistan Pales*ne Philippines Portugal

Russia Singapore Slovenia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tanzania

Thailand Uganda United Kingdom

United States of America Venezuela Zimbabwe Bermuda Bulgaria Croa*a Cyprus

Georgia Luxembourg Macau Namibia Nigeria Republic de Panama Peru Seychelles Turkey


Occupa*onal therapy is the only health profession that has interna*onal quality

assurance process for entry level educa*on of its prac**oners;

WFOT Minimum Standards of the Educa3on of Occupa3onal Therapist

& Program Review Process


The Council of WFOT 2010


The Execu3ve Management Team






Professional Competencies

•  are now in the process of being developed for most professions and disciplines all over the world

•  A search on the web will give many hits also related to health professions


This presenta*on is relevant for all health professionals but the examples are related to occupa*onal therapy


WFOT view on competencies

is included in the following documents available from www.wfot.org:

•  WFOT Minimum Standards for the Educa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists (2002)

•  WFOT Entry-‐level competencies for occupa*onal therapists (2008)


•  WFOT recommends that local/na*onal context should influence the educa*onal programmes

•  Competencies should be adapted to each local/na*onal context


•  However competencies should include the following areas: – The person-‐occupa*on-‐environment rela*onship and its rela*onship to health

– Therapeu*c and professional rela*onship – Occupa*onal therapy process – Professional reasoning and behaviour – The context of professional prac*ce



Components of Educational programmes for Occupational Therapists


1. Iden3fying baseline

2. Defining OT competencies

3. Developing OT Educa3on (Guidelines, curriculum)

Local/National context and needs

International standards (WFOT, WCPT) and National Standards

International standards (WFOT, WCPT) and Local/National context and needs


•  What are competencies?

•  Why are they important?

•  How do you develop competencies?

•  Were is knowledge on developing competencies?


Competencies are

•  abili*es to successfully carry out skills and perform profession-‐specific tasks and du*es

•  abili*es to perform work to a set standard in employment

•  the end product of an educa*onal programme, or how learners are able to perform at the end of an educa*onal process


Competencies

•  Represent a dynamic combina*on of knowledge and understanding, interpersonal and prac*cal skills, ethical values and responsibili*es and abili*es

•  Are ac*ons that need integra*on of knowledge, skills and agtudes


Why Focus on Competencies?


Common descrip*on for the prac**oners and the educa*onal programs

Educa*on Competencies Prac*ce Set learning objec*ve and standards for prac*ce

Why Focus on Competencies?


Why Focus on competencies?

•  Maintain and enhance professional standard •  Easier to understand the different roles and

exper*se of different professions (eg PT, OT, rehab therapist and rehab physician)

•  Support transparency for clients, employers and other stakeholders

•  May be used as baseline for evalua*ng individual competencies and educa*onal programs



•  Guide design of na*onal guidelines, curriculums and educa*onal programmes (e.g., Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK and more)

•  Make it possible to have different content or sequence of subjects (different curriculums, but s*ll the same competencies)



•  Support moving from teacher-‐centered and subject-‐centered educa*on towards learner and competence-‐centered educa*on

•  Put emphasis on learning outcomes •  Support transparency during learning


Key themes of competencies for health professional

(Rodger et al 2009)

Competencies are more than the execu*on of a set of specific, technical skills; It is also:

•  judicious and reasoned applica*on of intellect to meet the expecta*ons of the client and work environment

•  sufficient insight to regulate own prac*ce •  a rela*ve term dependent on the context


Developing OT competencies

Since competencies reflect practice and are the outcome of educational programmes they should be developed in cooperation with academics and practitioners


The European Tuning Project

has developed a common methodology for all disciplines/ professions

This methodology has been followed to develop European competencies for Occupa*onal Therapy by COTEC (OT prac*cians) and ENOTHE (OT academics) The work was coordinated by the European OT Tuning Group (represen*ng ENOTHE and COTEC)


•  Based on cri3cal study of earlier work by: –  WFOT (Hocking & Ness 2002) –  College of OT’s in the UK (Turner 2004) –  Australian Associa*on of OT’s (Ford & Tonkin 1994) –  Canadian Associa*on for OT’s (CAOT 1998) –  European Curriculum Guidelines (Howard & Lancee 2000) –  Standards of Prac*ce (COTEC 1996)

•  Focus groups (annual mee*ngs of ENOTHE and COTEC)

The European Occupa3onal Therapy Tuning Project


•  Online Ques3onnaire for all European occupa*onal therapy prac**oners, academics and students (Tuning methodology)

•  Open feedback process from COTEC and ENOTHE, e-‐mail and consulta*on with experts

•  Feedback from employers and client groups •  Valida3on mee3ng with stakeholders (interna*onal experts in health and educa*on)

•  Parallel mee*ngs with the medical, nursing and physiotherapy professions



European OT competencies are described in 6 categories:

•  Knowledge of occupa*onal therapy (5) • OT process and professional reasoning (9) •  Professional rela*onships and partnerships (5) •  Professional autonomy and accountability (5) •  Research and development in OT/science (6) • Management and promo*on of OT (5)



Canadian Associa3on of Occupa3onal Therapists

Profile of OT Prac3ce in Canada (2007) •  The concept used for developing the profile is based on the competencies framework for medical specialists produced by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada: the “CanMEDS Roles” (Frank, 2005).


Canadian Associa3on of Occupa3onal Therapists

The profile outlines the seven main “roles” of the occupa*onal therapist: 1. Expert in Enabling Occupa*on 2. Communicator 3. Collaborator 4. Prac*ce Manager 5. Change Agent 6. Scholarly Prac**oner and 7. Professional


Issues and dilemmas to consider when developing competencies

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists Issues and dilemmas to consider when developing competencies Competences are the aims that are guiding all

five areas in WFOT Min Standards 1.  Philosophy and purpose 2.  Curriculum content and sequence 3.  Educa*onal methods 4.  Fieldwork 5.  Educa*onal resources 6.  Educators


Components of Educational programmes for Occupational Therapists


Competencies are oqen grouped under headings, but have common content in different standards

World Federa*on of Occupa*onal Therapists Areas of competencies

WFOT minimum standards

European Competencies Canadian profile CAOT

Person-‐environment-‐occupa3on-‐interface

The person-‐occupa*on-‐environment rela*onship and its rela*onship to health

Knowledge of Occupa*onal Therapy Expert in Enabling Occupa*on

Collabora3on and partnership

Therapeu*c and professional rela*onship

Professional Rela*onships and Partnerships Communicator and Collaborator

Enabling occupa3on and par3cipa3on

Occupa*onal therapy process

Occupa*onal Therapy Process and Professional Reasoning Management and Promo*on of Occupa*onal Therapy

Change Agent and Expert in Enabling Occupa*on

Professional reasoning and behaviour; ethical, prac3cal and scien3fic

Professional reasoning and behaviour

Research and Development in Occupa*onal Therapy/Science Professional Rela*onships and Partnerships Occupa*onal Therapy Process and Professional Reasoning

Professional and Scholarly Prac**oner

Local and interna3onal orienta3on

The context of professional prac*ce

Professional Autonomy and Accountability Prac*ce Manager


OT educa3on should prepare competencies in following area:

•  Person-‐environment-‐occupa3on-‐interface

•  Collabora3on and partnership •  Enabling occupa3on and par3cipa3on •  Professional reasoning and behaviour; ethical, clinical/prac3cal and scien3fic

•  Local and interna3onal orienta3on



Competencies are: •  complex (an integra*on of knowledge, skills and agtudes), but should s*ll communicate clearly

•  related to contexts (eg. consider if the health professional (OT, PT) should work in hospital or primary/community segngs or both)



Competencies are: •  described with an ac3ve verb, as a performance, behaviour or skill (eg. apply, collaborate, disseminate, demonstrate)

•  the core of the professions roles, du*es and strengths (and does not include every single detail of a curriculum)

•  oqen related to na3onal priori3es •  in line with interna3onal standards (WFOT, WCPT)



Consider •  the number of competencies (not few, not too many)

•  difference between technical –prescrip3ve competencies (including verbs like: shall, should, must) and enabling competencies that allows flexibility and some varia*ons of prac*ce (Rodger et al 2009)



Consider also •  Regular update/revision of competencies in view of na*onal health needs and development

•  Competences formulated as a con3nuum to be developed through life; this con*nuum might be opera*onalised with specific learning outcomes at certain steps (1st, 2nd, 3rd year, Bachelor, Master, Doctoral level) (eg European Tuning system)


Competencies

Learning outcome Bachelor

Learning outcome Master

Learning outcome Doctoral


Helpful resources

•  WFOT Minimum Standard for the Educa6on of Occupa6onal Therapists (2002). (available in different languages)

•  WFOT Entry-‐level competencies for occupa6onal therapists (2008) Online order from WFOT shop hrps://www.wfot.org/wfotshop/ or WFOT secretariat; [email protected]


•  The Reference points for the Design and Delivery of Degree Programmes in Occupa6onal Therapy (ENOTHE and COTEC 2008)

–  Introduc*on to Occupa*onal Therapy –  Summary of the OT TUNING process –  Applica*on of competencies (Including designing curricula and ideas

of approaches to learning, teaching and assessment including fieldwork)

–  Includes bachelor, master and doctoral level –  Challenges and trends for the future Download book from h_p://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu/, scroll

down to bo_om of page, click third book from le`

Helpful resources


•  European Occupa6onal Therapy Competences (ENOTHE and COTEC 2008) translated into 20 languages:

hrp://www.enothe.hva.nl/tq/tuning_line2.htm

Helpful resources


Helpful resources

•  Profile of OT Prac6ce in Canada (CAOT 2007): Download from hrp://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=36

•  Sylvia Rodgers et al (2009): A comparisons of interna3onal occupa3onal therapy competencies: Implica3ons for Australian standards in the new millennium, Australian Occupa9onal Therapy Journal vol 56, issue 6 372-‐383.


More informa3on on Tuning process: Tuning Educa6onal Structures in Europe hrp://tuning.unideusto.org

Helpful resources


Thank you very much

Health & Medicine

Developing Occupational Therapy Competencies