“Connecting Trauma-Informed Care to Fieldwork Education”
This event will identify how trauma-informed care principles can inform the clinical education experience of occupational therapy fieldwork students. Trauma informed education can play a critical role as we facilitate the development of occupational therapy students as they become resilient practitioners through the fieldwork experience. Occupational therapy students are currently learning in the face of global adversity and trauma. Students have reported heightened levels of anxious thoughts, depressed moods, fearfulness, and disengagement due to a global crisis of highly charged political, economic, and racial turmoil which is impacting their ability to learn (Ho et al., 2020). When a student’s brain is under traumatic stress, energy is focused on survival, and learning and reasoning are negatively impacted (Thomas, 2019). Implementation of trauma-informed care in fieldwork education, including supervision, improves learning experiences for students and fieldwork educators alike (Sitzman, 2016, Thomas, 2019).
Presented by University of St. Augustine Faculty:
Erin McIntyre, MA, OTD, OTR/L
Jessica De Brun, MOT, OTD, OTR/L
