Course Descriptions

This course provides students with opportunities to build reflective, collaborative learning and teamwork skills for professional practice.

Mentorship

Throughout the two years of the MScOT program, students work in assigned mentor groups with an experienced occupational therapist as their Mentor. These mentor groups offer a platform for students to develop and enhance intrapersonal, interpersonal, and interprofessional skills through guided interactive sessions that focus on self-reflection, self-care, collaborative learning with construcve feedback, and effecve teamwork. The course's learning objectives align with the regulatory requirements for occupational therapy practice set by the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario (COTO), as well as the Competencies for Occupational Therapists in Canada (2021). Mentors play a vital role in guiding students' professional development and are chosen as role models for their mentoring skills and professionalism. Students, faculty, or other clinicians nominate mentors. In the mentorship setting, Mentors create an atmosphere of safety and freedom that encourages students to explore their abilities in dealing with challenging professional issues that arise during the academic and fieldwork components of the program. Each student has been assigned to a specific Mentor Group, and the name of the assigned mentor can be found on Quercus.

Interprofessional Education Curriculum

There are foundational, elective and placement components in U of T’s Interfaculty Interprofessional Education (IPE) program.

Foundational: In Year 1, the three requisite foundational IPE learning activities include:

1. Why Collaborative Healthcare? Learning From Stories and Science,
2. How To Work Together? Valuing Perspectives and Challenging Assumptions
3. Cultivating Team Partnerships: Learning From Lived Experiences.

In required programming, students work with student health professionals from dentistry, kinesiology, nursing, medical radiation sciences, medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, social work, spiritual care, and the physician assistant program.

Elective: Students must also complete at least three elective learning activities, with at least one in the second year. Approved elective IPE learning activities will be posted on the Centre for Advancing Collaborartive Healthcare & Eductiaon (CACHE) website here. CACHE administrators regularly send emails to inform students about upcoming elective options and registration dates. Electives may be single, stand-alone or longitudinal learning activities.

This course examines the structure (anatomy) and function (biomechanics and occupational performance) of the musculoskeletal systems of the upper and lower extremities and the trunk. Daily living activities will be analyzed from a musculoskeletal perspective. Also included is foundational knowledge for understanding the pathology of selected musculoskeletal conditions as well as goniometry, manual muscle testing, sensation testing, transfer techniques and ergonomics.

This course introduces students to the fundamental ideas of Occupational Science and the occupational paradigm, which inform and guide occupational therapy research and practice. The complexity of the central concept of occupation and the idea of humans as occupational beings are examined. The phenomenology of ascribing meaning to day-to-day occupations people engage in is explored. Elements of theory (e.g., paradigms, models, concepts) are introduced. Then major conceptual frameworks, which focus on occupational science and occupation, are discussed. In order to understand the context of occupation, important environmental influences (e.g., health-related, personal, social, cultural, political and economic) on occupation across the lifespan are explored. Challenges to and supports for occupation encountered by people with disabilities are also discussed. By the end of the course the student will: 

• develop an occupational view of the world; 
• appreciate the dynamic and phenomenological nature of occupation; 
• understand how occupation influences and is influenced by health, quality of life, and well-being; 
• appreciate the linkages among theory, research, and practice, and understand perspectives 
• on occupational enablement (how occupation is enabled).

This course is comprised of a six-week, full-time fieldwork opportunity during which students will be placed in approved fieldwork sites in the Toronto area. Students will be placed in a variety of settings including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools, community agencies, etc. Students will be exposed to selected client issues (physical, affective/cognitive) and will experience a variety of intervention opportunities (assessment, treatment, consultation, program planning, evaluation, etc.). Supervision during the placement will be provided by registered occupational therapists. Students will focus on refining generic assessment skills, developing documentation skills, and beginning to apply theoretical knowledge to the clinical setting.

This course is comprised of a seven-week, full-time fieldwork opportunity during which students will be placed in approved fieldwork sites in the Toronto area. Students will be placed in a variety of settings including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools, community agencies, etc. Students will be exposed to selected client issues (physical, affective/cognitive) and will experience of variety of intervention opportunities (assessment, treatment, consultation, program planning, evaluation, etc.). Supervision during the placement will be provided by registered occupational therapists. Students will focus on developing skills in advanced assessments, consolidating academic learning with clinical learning, and increasing independence in working with clients.

This course is comprised of a seven-week, full-time fieldwork opportunity during which students will be placed in approved fieldwork sites in the Toronto area. Students will be placed in a variety of settings including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools, community agencies, etc. Students will be exposed to selected client issues and will experience of variety of intervention opportunities (assessment, treatment, consultation, program planning, evaluation, etc.). Supervision during the placement will be provided by registered occupational therapists. Students will focus on gaining independence in administering and interpreting assessments, treatment planning, programming and evaluation. Students will begin to use a consultation approach with their supervising occupational therapists.

This course is comprised of an eight-week, full-time fieldwork opportunity during which students will be placed in approved fieldwork sites in the Toronto area. Students will be placed in a variety of settings including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools, community agencies, etc. Students will be exposed to selected client issues and will experience of variety of intervention opportunities (assessment, treatment, consultation, program planning, evaluation, etc.). Supervision during the placement will be provided by registered occupational therapists. In this final fieldwork opportunity, the focus for student learning will be managing a significant portion of the supervisor’s caseload, maximal independence and consolidation of all previous academic and fieldwork learning.

The introduction of regulatory, social and professional accountabilities for the practice of occupational therapy will provide a framework for the development of professional competence across practice contexts. Concepts introduced in Foundations of Occupational Science (e.g., occupation, enablement, client-centredness) are integrated into occupational therapy practice through the Occupational Performance Process Model and the Canadian Practice Process Framework. 

This course includes a two week Introductory Fieldwork Experience that provides exposure to a number of clinical experiences and specific lab and simulation experiences with targeted student reflection. The general objectives for this introduction to fieldwork experience are for students to: 

• Gain an understanding of the role of the occupational therapist within different practice contexts 
• Demonstrate professional behaviours 
• Begin to develop observation skills 
• Utilize appropriate communication skills with clients and supervising therapist(s) 
• Gain exposure to the client/patient experience; develop practices in client centeredness

Building on the OT Practice I course, OT Practice II prepares students for advanced fieldwork placements through skill development within the stages of the Occupational Performance Process Model, including clinical reasoning, therapeutic use of self, determination of learning styles and goal setting. Students prepare for self-evaluation of professional competencies, and learn universal safely precautions for clinical and community practice contexts. OT Practice II also provides students with ethical principles and an ethical decision-making model for occupational therapists. The ethical decision-making model is applied to cases involving different cultural norms, incapacity in disability, across the life course, and in administrative and professional relationships.

Building on OT Practice I and OT Practice II, OT Practice III will examine factors in the contexts of practice that influence the content, process and outcomes of occupational therapy. Students will develop skills in strategic planning, program development and marketing of professional services, as well as in managing complex roles (including consultation and assignment of therapy components to support personnel), communications, and business practices that are necessary for autonomous professional practice.