units

OCC5050

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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12 points, SCA Band 2, 0.250 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational UnitDepartment of Occupational Therapy
OfferedPeninsula Term 3 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Associate Professor Louise Farnworth

Synopsis

In this second intervention unit, student will further describe, apply and critique the principles of assessment and intervention for individual and groups of clients who are restricted in their ability to engage in activities, occupations, and participate in community life. Intervention principles will also incorporate environmental supports and barriers (advocacy, organisational change, environmental adaptation) and evidence-based practice. The common characteristics of primary care will form the framework including issues of expanded access, multi-professional service teams, optimal service coordination, and a focus on patient empowerment and the application of technology to health promotion. Prevention and health promotion systems relevant to primary care will be examined, and the evidence and theoretical base for preventive (behavioural) counselling, brief interventions, health education practice, methods of tailoring strategies to client needs, motivational interviewing techniques, motivating change and preventing relapse will be explored. Approaches to adopting health promotion strategies and building capacity for health promotion in others will be explored.

This unit also gives students an advanced overview of the skills necessary to critique and evaluate research evidence. Students will be introduced to methodologies related to evaluating and conducting mixed-method survey-based research using questionnaires. This will provide the foundation to integrate clinically relevant evidence into daily professional practice as well as skills to be able assist with quality assurance activities using survey methodology. A fieldwork block of 3 weeks full time will conclude the term (112 hours).

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Take responsibility for own attitudes and behaviour, and maintain the legal, ethical and professional standards and emergency procedures set by the fieldwork facility, Monash University, and OT AUSTRALIA code of ethics;
  2. Appraise the complex and interacting factors that contribute to notions of culture and cultural relationships, health and illness and multicultural diversity to professional practice and citizenship;
  3. Identify further common medical, surgical, neurological, musculoskeletal, biopsychosocial and developmental conditions that can present in clients of occupational therapy, and their occupational sequela;
  4. Demonstrate understanding of the frameworks that underpin health promotion and the application of health promotion principles and demonstrate how health care and health promotion is operationalized and evaluated in clinical settings and how it is used in program planning;
  5. Formulate integrated reasoning involving purposeful and meaningful occupation; client-centred/family centred practice; occupational therapy theory and practice; identity as an occupational therapist; and thinking critically, reasoning and reflecting to the development and implementation of occupationally relevant intervention strategies;
  6. Identify gaps in intervention practice knowledge, develop a researchable clinical intervention question and search databases for best evidence to support practice gaps;
  7. Choose and critique best evidence available for occupational therapy individual and group intervention strategies, methods and modalities used with clients of occupational therapy presenting with physical, mental/psychosocial, cognitive, social, and other related occupational performance challenges;
  8. Select, appraise, design and implement quantitative and qualitative; questionnaires/scales/survey data used to gather data, and interpret and report results;
  9. Effectively communicate with other members of the team and refer appropriately including planning and producing a health promotion pamphlet or poster;
  10. Write relevant, concise and comprehensive reports and pamphlets and substantiate both written and oral reporting with information from a range of empirical and other data sources.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork - 3 week placement (112 hours). Fieldwork will require students to travel to fieldwork locations. These may be near or away from the campus.

Assessment

Oral presentation (20 minutes) (5%)
Case study report and group presentation (2,000 words/20 minutes) (15%)
Analysis essay and program plan (2,500 words) (15%)
Written examination (2 hours) (20%)
Written (1 hour) and oral examination (30 minutes) including discussant of two peers in oral examinations (20%)
Survey development OR focus group interview report (2,000 words) (15%)
MCQ & short answer exam (1 hour) (10%)
Attendance at 80% of tutorials, skills classes and fieldwork placement (Hurdle)
Successful completion of fieldwork including attendance at fieldwork briefing; submission of (i) a completed and signed student placement evaluation form - revised (SPEF-R) (ii) signed timesheet and (iii) student review of placement form; and (iv) reflective journal. (Hurdle)

Workload requirements

This unit will run for 9 weeks of academic/fieldwork followed by one week Swot Vac, one week of exams, 3 weeks of fieldwork and one week vacation. As this is an accelerated program, the workload demands are more than would be expected of an undergraduate 12 CP unit as it is run over 9 rather than 12 weeks.
PBL Tutorials - 4 hours per week (on campus)
Lectures - 4 hours per week (online)
Practicals - 4 hours per week (on campus)
Fieldwork - Placement 3 weeks full time (112 hours)
Private study - 12 hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Prerequisites