Occupational Therapy BSc (Hons)

This module is the first of two Year 1 modules that introduce the students to foundational anatomy and physiology knowledge relevant to occupational therapy practice. Students will learn by attending online key-note lectures, participating in online small peer group seminars, videos and through self-directed study. Students will attend online teaching sessions at the Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC). Students will develop skills in movement and activity analysis informed by their knowledge of the lived body.

Learning and teaching is delivered by lectures, practical and interactive small group seminars and self directed learning. Students also attend the Human Anatomy Research Centre.

The assessment is an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OPSE).

This module is the second of two Year 1 modules that introduce the students to foundational anatomy and physiology knowledge relevant to occupational therapy practice. This second module focuses on increasing students’ understanding of neuroanatomy including the relationship between causes of neurological deficits and occupational performance.

Students will learn by attending virtual or on campus key-note lectures, participating in small peer groups seminars, interacting with service users, practical teaching sessions and through self-directed study. Students will attend teaching synchronous teaching sessions online from the Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC).sessions at the Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC). Students will develop knowledge and some understanding of standardised and non- standardised assessments used to evaluate function in the central and peripheral nervous system.

The assessment is an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

In this module, students will be introduced to fundamental aspects of occupational therapy philosophy and theory. Students will discuss the different occupations that people perform throughout their life-course, the importance of occupational participation on health and well-being and key theories that underpin occupational therapy practice.

This module will be delivered through a combination of online interactive lectures and seminars, workshops and group discussions. On-line learning, including engaging with on-line quiz software and accessing video clips will also be used in this module.

This module will be assessed through a 2500 word essay. Students will be offered a choice of case-studies of people at different stages in their life-course with different occupational performance challenges.

This module enables students to begin to develop their clinical reasoning skills when working with people with a range of medical conditions, pathologies, social and cultural challenges. Drawing on information from first semester modules, this module will enable students to consider an appropriate, theoretically-sound assessment for case-study individuals. The module involves keynote lectures, problem-based learning and workshops where students will develop the required knowledge and skills. This module is assessed with a presentation of the proposed occupational therapy assessment strategy and individualised goals as if to a multi-disciplinary team meeting.

The module involves keynote lectures, problem-based learning and workshops where students will develop the required knowledge and skills, particularly in assessment and goal-setting in occupational therapy.

This module will be assessed through two summative assessment components, each of 50%. Students must achieve an aggregate mark of 40% to pass this module. The assessment includes a presentation of the proposed occupational therapy assessment strategy, individualised goals and the underpinning theory for a case study, chosen from a range provided, as if to a multi-disciplinary team meeting and the submission of the powerpoint presentation with accompanying notes (equivalent of 1,500 words). This will be either on campus or via virtual delivery

This module sits within the ‘Evidence for Practice’ theme within the occupational therapy programme. In this first-year module, students will explore how evidence is relevant to occupational therapy practice.  They will also be introduced to the philosophical basis underpinning established research methodologies. They will consider how best to source evidence to inform occupational therapy practice. Connections will be made between contemporary occupational therapy practice, evidence-based practice, audit and research.

Learning will comprise a blend of lectures, group-work, guided on-line learning, on-line quizzes, library supported sessions and independent study. Teaching and learning activities will be delivered in line with a hybrid approach. Throughout the module, examples of authentic occupational therapy practice will be used to enable students to recognise the importance of evidence, identify the types of evidence required to inform practice and to propose, at a basic level, how to collect, review and use evidence to inform practice. Throughout the learning journey, students will be concurrently developing IT skills, skills in referencing sources, become familiar with searching library resources and classifying sources based on their quality.

Summative assessment comprises of online assessments and a written assignment in which students can demonstrate their appreciation of the importance of evidence-informed practice and their ability to undertake a basic search for information in a specific, authentic area of practice.​ 

In this first module of the Society and Well-being theme the student will develop knowledge and understanding of psychological and sociological theories and principles which are relevant to the practice of occupational therapy.

The student will learn about principles of human behaviour and society to increase their understanding of health and well-being, illness and disability.

Students will be introduced to accounts of the lived experience of disability which will enhance awareness of psychological and sociological factors impacting on disabled people’s lives. Students will learn how issues of diversity, equality and disability impact on occupational participation and social inclusion and the relevance for occupational therapy.

Students will learn by attending key-note lectures, accessing on-line resources, participating in small peer group learning tutorials and through self-directed study.

The assessment is a 3000 word written assessment.

This is the first module within the Professional Practice theme. Student’s will learn about the history of the Occupational Therapy profession and be introduced to the professional values, behaviours and attitudes required of an occupational therapist. Students will learn about the role of the regulatory and professional bodies, and will be introduced to the code of conduct and professional practice for occupational therapists.

Students will also begin to develop a range of skills required for professional practice, including communication skills and moving and handling. The concept of continuous professional development will be introduced.

Students will engage in a one-week observational placement within an occupational therapy clinical environment.

Learning and teaching will be delivered in a range of formats including large room and small group teaching, and practice and simulated placements.

Students will be assessed in a one hour practical examination assessing a range of professional and communication skills.
This will be delivered either on-campus or via virtual on-line delivery.

This is the second module within the Professional Practice theme.
Within this module students will participate in the first assessed practice placement (four weeks, 150 hours) within an occupational therapy clinical environment.

Student’s will be continuing to develop professional behaviours and attitudes required of an occupational therapist. Students will be expected to adhere to the code of conduct and professional practice for occupational therapists.

Students will continue to develop a range of skills required for professional practice, including knowledge of and fitting of standard equipment to facilitate activities of daily living, interpersonal skills and adult and paediatric resuscitation skills.

Students will begin to generate and collate evidence of personal and professional development for inclusion within their personal continual professional development (CPD) portfolio. This will use the guidance provided within the RCOT career development framework (2017b) and the HCPC audit process.

This module will also include a personal development tutorial with the student’s allocated academic advisor.

This module will incorporate a mixed style of learning and teaching strategies including tutor facilitated seminars and opportunities for developing skills through experiential learning prior to and during practice placements. Students will also engage in inter-professional learning within the University environment.

This module is assessed by means of:
An OSPE delivered either on-campus or via virtual on-line delivery and a four week practice placement in an occupational therapy practice environment.

This module develops students’ professional reasoning skills.

This is the third module in the ‘Reasoning in Occupational Therapy’ theme; it builds on information from the first-year modules in this theme and also integrate information from the mind-body performance modules, as students consider the impact of more complex pathology on occupational performance.

Students will consider more complexity in terms of the medical conditions, socio-economic circumstances of the case-study individuals and types of intervention offered by occupational therapists.

This module involves keynote lectures, problem-based learning, workshops, small-group learning and self-managed learning to enable students to critically consider the role of the occupational therapist.

The assessment involves presenting the intervention plan for a case-study individual, as if to a multi-disciplinary team meeting, and the submission of a handout to support the presentation.

In this module, students will explore outcome measurement as part of the occupational therapy process, alongside increasingly complex intervention contexts, including working with groups and concepts of co-occupation. This module builds on previous modules in the Reasoning in Occupational Therapy theme.

Using problem-based learning, students will devise approaches to working with individuals and groups to promote occupational well-being and critique outcome measurement strategies.

Teaching and learning will involve a mixture of keynote lectures, problem-based learning, skills workshops, group-work, role-play and self-managed learning.

Students will be assessed through one written piece of coursework, which will enable them to demonstrate their appreciation of group-work, interpersonal communication, co-occupation and also outcome measurement in occupational therapy. The course-work will be based on a chosen case-study.

This, the second module in the Evidence for practice in occupational therapy theme, enables students to undertake authentic critical appraisal of evidence to support a specific area of practice, which ideally will link to their interests and practice education learning.

In this module, students will work in groups to identify research questions, undertake a literature search and appraise the evidence, presenting a critically appraised topic. They will then have the opportunity to consider the evidence base and how it can be applied to occupational therapy practice. Hybrid learning will be interactive, with group discussion, on-line learning, using quiz and test software and some lecture content.

Students will present a patchwork assignment, demonstrating their acquisition of knowledge and skill in an evidence-based practice process involving identifying literature, critical appraisal, summarising literature and application to practice with a concluding narrative.

In the third module in the Evidence for Practice in Occupational Therapy theme, students have the opportunity to produce research, being involved in real, authentic research projects, supported by members of the academic staff team. Students will consider research ethics, data collection methods, data analysis and dissemination of research. The assessment is a patchwork where students can demonstrate their learning throughout the module with a concluding narrative.

This module uses a variety of teaching and learning methods, including practical, hands-on experience with data collection and analysis, lectures, tutorials and on-line learning.

On-line learning will support and reinforce learning from lectures and group-work.

Self-directed study will enable students to prepare for their practical work and build the ‘patches’ for the assignment.

This module is the second module within the Society and Well-being theme. This theme develops students’ understanding of the wider societal context on occupational participation. This module builds on sociological and psychological theory and principles learnt in Year 1. It increases student awareness of how societal values and relevant policy and legislation impact on the lives of different groups of people in society and in particular the lives of disabled people.

Students learn knowledge and skills to describe facilitators and barriers to access and social inclusion for disabled people. Students will learn by attending key-note lectures, accessing on-line resources, participating in small peer group learning tutorials and through self-directed study. Students will also spend time in a community setting which will provide them with the opportunity to complete an Access Audit Tool. Students will carry out the access audit in small groups identifying environmental facilitators and barriers that influence access and social inclusion for disabled people. Students will develop recommendations that enhance disabled people’s occupational participation and health and well-being.

The assessment is a 3000 word written assessment.

This module is the second Year 2 module and third module overall within the Society and Wellbeing theme. This theme develops students’ understanding of the wider societal context on occupational participation. This module develops knowledge and skills relevant to the development of occupational therapy interventions which contribute to Public Health outcomes. Students develop their knowledge about a range of environments including social, economic, legislative and ecological and the impact these have on different population groups. The module promotes attitudinal recognition and change. Students learn about health promoting models and behavioural change models and their applicability to the design of occupational therapy interventions. Students will increase their knowledge of occupation as an intervention for engagement and participation to enhance health and wellbeing.

Learning and teaching includes large class lectures, small group interactive peer led seminars and tutor led groups and self-directed learning. Students will have the opportunity to pre-record their poster presentation to build their presentation skills.

This module will be assessed through two summative assessments: a poster (1000 word) and a 15 minutes presentation.

This is the third module within the Professional Practice theme. This module will focus on developing knowledge and skills for practice and increasing students’ confidence and competence.

Students will undertake a 6 week Practice Placement (PP3) in semester 1 and will engage in preparatory, clinical skills teaching sessions prior to commencing their practice placement. The students will also engage in learning to enable them to generate and collate evidence of personal and professional development for inclusion within their personal continual professional development (CPD) portfolio.

This module will incorporate a mixed style of learning and teaching strategies including tutor facilitated seminars and opportunities for developing skills through experiential learning prior to and during practice placements. Students will also engage in inter-professional learning within the University environment.

This module is assessed by means of:
A University based OSPE and a six week practice placement in an occupational therapy practice setting.

This is the fourth module within the Professional Practice theme. This module will focus on developing knowledge and skills for practice and increasing students’ confidence and competence.

Students will also continue to generate and collate evidence of personal and professional development for inclusion within their personal continual professional development (CPD) portfolio. This will use the guidance provided within the RCOT career development framework (2017b) and the HCPC audit process.

This module will incorporate a mixed style of learning and teaching strategies including tutor facilitated seminars and opportunities for developing skills through experiential learning prior to and during practice placements. Students will also engage in inter-professional learning within the University environment.

This module is assessed by means of:
A University based OSPE and a six week practice placement in an occupational therapy practice setting.

This, the final module in the Reasoning in Occupational Therapy theme involves consideration of service improvement and how services are delivered. Students will have the opportunity to apply information about quality assurance, entrepreneurship, service improvement and business planning to their own example of a service improvement project. They will then have the opportunity to present this, with a poster, to an audience.

Teaching and learning will involve action learning sets and keynote lectures, alongside self-directed learning and tutorials to support with individual projects. The taught content of the module will focus on service improvement, quality assurance and service development, and students will apply these concepts directly to their own example of service improvement.

This module will be assessed through two summative assessment components; a 20 minute presentation and a written service proposal of 3,00 words.

In this, the final module within the Evidence for Practice in Occupational Therapy theme, students will undertake an independent review of literature in a topic of their choice. Following their review of the literature, they will propose future research.

Teaching and learning strategies include lectures, group tutorials and independent study to enable students to undertake the review. The assessment is presentation of the literature review and research proposal.

There are two summative assessment for this module, which comprise of a review of the literature and a proposal for future research or practice implementation.

The review of the literature is designed to emulate a journal article format, so that students can develop academic writing skills that would be authentic to future research practice.

The research proposal will be in the format of a funding application template, created by the teaching team from a mix of forms used by funders of occupational therapy research. Again, this aims to be authentic of future research practice.

This Year 3 module is the fourth and final module within the Society and Well-being theme. This theme develops students’ understanding of the wider societal context on occupational participation. This module builds on knowledge, skills and attitudinal change developed in Year 1 and Year 2. It focuses on greater complexity in regard to environmental impact, marginalised and potentially vulnerable population groups and developing skills in designing complex occupational therapy interventions to enhance health and well-being. This module’s content includes examples of occupational therapy good practice locally, nationally and internationally in order to widen knowledge and apply understanding to design interventions to address occupational injustices. This module also enhances students’ understanding of ethical issues arising in situations of complexity and principles to guide ethical occupational therapy practice.

This is the fifth module within the Professional Practice theme. This module will focus on developing knowledge and skills for practice and increasing students’ confidence and competence for future employment. Student’s will generate, evaluate and collate appropriate evidence of personal and professional development for inclusion within their personal continual professional development (CPD) portfolio, using the guidance provided within the RCOT career development framework (2017b) and the HCPC audit process.

Students will undertake a 6 week Practice Placement (PP5) in semester 1 and engage in preparatory, clinical skills teaching sessions prior to commencing their practice placement.

This module will incorporate a mixed style of learning and teaching strategies including tutor facilitated seminars and opportunities for developing skills through experiential learning prior to and during practice placements. Students will also engage in inter-professional learning within the University environment.

This module is assessed by means of:
A University based OSPE and a six week practice placement in an occupational therapy practice setting.

This is the sixth and final module within the Professional Practice theme. This module will focus on preparing final year occupational therapy students for managing the transition from undergraduate student to qualified occupational therapist. It will develop knowledge and skills for practice and increase students’ confidence and competence for future employment.

Student’s will generate, evaluate and present appropriate evidence of personal and professional development from within a completed personal continual professional development (CPD) portfolio.

Students will also undertake an 8 week elective Practice Placement (PP6), off campus in a health and social care setting of their choice.

This module will incorporate a mixed style of learning and teaching strategies including tutor facilitated seminars and opportunities for developing skills through experiential learning prior to and during practice placements. Students will also engage in inter-professional learning.

Learning and teaching activities will be delivered using a hybrid approach.

This module is assessed by means of:
An Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) and an eight week elective practice placement.