A Practice Placement Education Model Based upon a Primary Health Care Perspective Used in South Australia

Abstract

Undergraduate education programmes play a major role in the development of the profession; providing practice placement education opportunities across a range of settings prepares graduates for the diversity of practice. This paper describes a practice placement education model, developed in South Australia, which enables graduates to work effectively from a primary health care or social health perspective to engage actively with the paradigm shift occurring in health.

The model consists of three phases. Phase one comprises academic input relating to social health philosophy and the link with occupational therapy, as well as knowledge and skills in project management. Phase two allows students to explore a range of community-based agencies and potential project opportunities. Phase three involves the implementation and evaluation of a project aimed at addressing a specified need in the community in a sustainable manner. A synopsis of several projects is provided to demonstrate the variety of agencies and issues that can be addressed using such a model.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cornwall

(1988) Introduction: A social health strategy for South Australia. Adelaide: South Australian Health Commission.

DiGiacomo

Adamson

(2001) Coping with stress in the workplace: Implications for new health professionals. Journal of Allied Health, 30(2), 106–11.

Farrow

(1995) Power for the profession: Quality graduates and more therapists. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 42(1), 27–29.

Janiak

(1993) A comparison of occupational therapy students' professional skills developed during self-directed community and traditional fieldwork placements. (Unpublished research report.) Adelaide: University of South Australia.

Sanders

(1998) Executive Summary: PHC21 — Everybody's business. Primary Health Care Conference, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 27–28 November. Geneva: World Health Organisation.

Townsend

(1999) Enabling occupation in the 21st century: Making good intentions a reality. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 46(4), 147–59.

Wilcock

(1998) An occupational perspective on health. Thorofare, NJ: Slack.

World Federation of Occupational Therapists (2002) Overview of the WFOT minimum standards for the education of occupational therapists 2002. (CD ROM.) Western Australia: WFOT.

World Health Organisation (2001) ICF: International classification of functioning, disability and health. Geneva: WHO.

10.

World Health Organisation (2004) Declaration of Alma Ata. Available at: http://www.euro.who.int/AboutWHO/Policy/20010827_1 Accessed on 11.08.05.