Are Incentives a Key Component of OTs’ Willingness to Take on Fieldwork Students? A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study

This study was conducted to explore the impact of incentives on clinicians’ decision to supervise a student. The field of OT is expanding, but the amount of available fieldwork placements is not growing to meet the need for advancing the profession). An exploratory design was utilized. Using state association and university databases, around 1000 clinicians were emailed a survey regarding their perceptions of whether educational benefits and incentives would impact their willingness to accept a student. Only 53 respondents were utilized in the study. Using excel software, the researchers independently coded qualitative data then agreed upon themes. Qualitative data was merged with quantitative data for analysis. The study found that about 50% of potential fieldwork educators receiving incentives would be more likely to supervise a student. The most frequently reported incentives by participants were CEU’s, access to educational resources, and financial compensation. These results supported the hypothesis that providing incentives would increase an OT’s likelihood to become a fieldwork educator. The findings suggest that it may be beneficial for universities to increase incentives offered to fieldwork educators to increase level II fieldwork placements for OT students. In the future it is recommended that researchers will build upon the findings in this study by conducting further research and include a larger sample size, as well as incorporate OT’s practicing nationally.

References

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2018). Academic Programs Annual Data Report Academic Year 2017-2018. https://www.aota.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/EducationCareers/Educators/2017-2018-Annual-Data-Report.pdf

Bonsaksen, T., Dolva, A.-S., Horghagen, Sh., Sveen, U., Hagby, C., & Arntzen, C. (2019). Community-working occupational therapists serving as fieldwork supervisors: Characteristics and associated factors. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 7(3), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.davenport.edu/10.15453/2168-6408.1627

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2021). Occupational outlook handbook, occupational therapists. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/occupational-therapists.htm

Varland, J., Cardell, E., Koski, J., & McFadden, M. (2017). Factors influencing occupational therapists’ decision to supervise fieldwork students. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 31(3), 238–254. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415535/pdf/nihms-1514721.pdf