In an effort to facilitate quality fieldwork and fieldwork-related instruction, MOTEC-OT has developed the following resources. MOTEC-OT invites you to view and utilize these documents as needed. Please be sure to reference MOTEC-OT when adopting all or part of these forms for professional use. Your feedback is very important to us. In the tradition of life-long learning we would like to hear your suggestions as well as why you have adopted or modified these forms in your clinical setting.
AOTA Resources for fieldwork
MOTEC Position Statement on REimbursement for fieldwork supervision
Clinical education is a key aspect of occupational therapy education. The Metropolitan Occupational Therapy Education Consortium (MOTEC) appreciates the contributions of health and human service institutions and community agencies in supporting occupational therapy education to enable tomorrow’s therapists to provide services to clients and families they serve. It recognizes the excellent work clinical educators do supervising occupational therapy (OT) students. Given increasing numbers of OT students seeking clinical fieldwork (FW) placements, MOTEC understands some colleges/universities may choose to support clinical education experiences by:
• Directly hiring an OT as an employee of the college to supervise fieldwork students, and/or • Providing an administrative fee to organizations providing clinical education to OT students, and/or • Providing reimbursement in kind (CEU, course credits, etc.) in gratitude for FW supervision of students
MOTEC stands united with consortiums, such as the California OT Fieldwork Council, New England OT Education Consortium, and the Colorado State University OT Department, against, what can be considered, a threat to the fieldwork education partnerships, an integral component of Occupational Therapy. While other professions have conventionally paid for internships, OT fieldwork internships have traditionally been provided through contracted partnerships based on a shared commitment to future OTs and the ongoing development of our profession. Requiring payment for fieldwork supervision of OT students is potentially detrimental to the OT profession as it potentially creates a feefor-service (FFS) environment where quantity and not quality of services is emphasized. MOTEC discourages fieldwork sites from charging fees for fieldwork placements and fieldwork supervision, whereas the reimbursement has a negative impact on factors including, but not limited to, the following:
• The quality of the fieldwork experiences for students • The accuracy of providing a fieldwork performance evaluation of the student • Supervision of a manageable number of students • Ethical standards for students and institutions • Cooperation and collegiality between MOTEC member institutions • Educators’ responsibility to appropriately match students and FW sites • Appropriate clinical education placement decisions • Expecting favorable outcomes with the exchange of money for fieldwork • Reasonable tuition and fees • Equity of opportunity for students whose economic status presents barriers to associated fees