Curricular Design

The curriculum for the Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy (EL-OTD) professional program aims to promote the development of professional clinical reasoning skills by integrating clinical, theoretical and scientific evidence.

Ethical Professional identity

Woven throughout the curriculum are professional identities in the roles of practitioner, manager and contributor.

The curriculum design promotes students' progression in professional identity through the development of foundational skills, followed by applying and integrating professional formation with a global view of the occupation.

Developing a professional identity requires students to enhance their self-reflection skills. Students must also learn to effectively collaborate with individuals from diverse cultures, age groups and learning styles to cultivate cultural humility, ethical integrity, and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

• Program philosophy of teaching and learning

  The OT program bases its philosophy on John Dewey’s premise that learning is not a passive transfer of knowledge from one person to another (Trumbull & Pacheco, 2005). Learning requires active participation and involvement in the learning process. Based on this premise and considering the complexity of environmental and social interactions, the social-ecological model helps students conceptualize the multiple factors that affect health and the impact on a client’s occupational performance and participation (AOTA, 2022).

• Curricular threads

  Seven curricular threads are interwoven throughout the professional identity roles. They are:

  1. Lifelong learners
  2. Occupations across life-span
  3. Theory and evidence-based practice and research
  4. Ethical professional identity
  5. Innovative leaders
  6. Teamwork
  7. Diverse backgrounds and communities

  Each thread reflects the program's theme and philosophy by focusing on developing skills for lifelong learning, teamwork, innovative leadership and ethical professional identity. It also highlights the importance of addressing occupations across the lifespan using evidence-based research, awareness of cultural humility and understanding global diversity. These skills are integrated with analytical and scientific reasoning, clinical skills and psychomotor skills to prepare students to contribute to interdisciplinary healthcare teams and address global healthcare challenges.

• Overall curricular and program goals

  Consistent with the mission of Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the Division of Occupational Therapy will:

  1. Design and implement a curriculum for our entry-level (EL-OTD) program that meets accreditation standards, prepares graduates for positions as practitioners, managers and contributors (descriptions of these roles are presented at the bottom of this page), and meets the future needs of our community and profession.
  2. Provide educational excellence by graduating students with entry-level competencies and professional skills grounded in theoretical and scientific evidence for emerging areas of practice and all practice settings needed to successfully pass the NBCOT exam and practice in the Binghamton rural area.
  3. Interpret and apply scientific evidence to solve a specific practical issue affecting an individual or a group in the context of broader sociocultural issues related to intra/ interdisciplinary practice and functional outcomes. 
  4. Implement evidence-based practices to recognize the unmet needs of an individual, community, or society and attend to those needs through collaboration with other professionals to deliver quality care.
  5. Build community outreach and connections to strengthen relationships with fieldwork sites and clinicians.
  6. Recruit diverse and highly qualified faculty to teach, conduct research, and provide service to the academic and professional communities to foster a diverse and inclusive campus culture and sustain a high-quality curriculum and educational experiences of the OTD students.
  7. Integrate global perspectives into the curriculum by enhancing, supporting, and promoting cultural impact and strategic internationalization efforts through high-impact learning, teaching, research, and engagement, both locally and globally. 

Sequence of progression

The curriculum progression sequence starts with building foundational knowledge and then moves on to applying reflective and advocacy skills, as well as understanding the complexities of the supervisory process. It also involves embracing interdisciplinary team roles and responsibilities while developing lifelong learning skills as practitioners, managers and contributors. Integration occurs after completing the didactic part of the curriculum during the Level II fieldwork experience, capstone project and capstone experience.

Intellectual curiosity and critical thinking

The mission of Binghamton's EL-OTD program is to foster intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills, along with a dedication to lifelong learning. We achieve this by supporting innovative teaching methods that integrate clinical decision-making based on evidence and a strong theoretical foundation. This prepares occupational therapy graduate students with the knowledge, skills and philosophy needed for a global perspective.

The mission allows for developing the roles of practitioner, manager and contributor to promote, lead and serve as innovators in health and well-being through occupation in various sociocultural, professional and institutional contexts.

Integrating ICF components

The EL-OTD program curriculum is based on science and incorporates the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) components, which include environment, participation, activities, and body functions and structures.

ICF concept interaction with OT primary roles

The OT roles of practitioner, manager and contributor interact with the ICF concepts to form the framework for the EL-OTD curriculum. The primary roles foster the development of the professional identity of EL-OTD students.

• ICF concept: Environmental factors

  Practitioner

  • Analyze, adapt and utilize the environment to enhance the client’s day-to-day functional performance.
  • Work collaboratively in an interprofessional healthcare arena to effect change in the environment to allow for the client’s engagement and participation in activities that will obviate the consequence of or ensuing impairment by enabling adaptation.

  Manager

  • Considers a wide array of environmental (external) factors when managing  OT therapy models of delivery of care. 
  • Promotes interprofessional collaboration and referral.

  Contributor

  • Uses research evidence to identify and influence health within multiple environments.
  • Advocates for the needs of consumers served by OT.
• ICF  concept: Participation/participation restriction

  Practitioner

  • Evaluates and intervenes for factors that enable or restrict full participation of consumers of OT services.
  • Develops and implements theory-driven and
    evidence-based interventions that promote client’s participation in daily life situations, health and well-being, and prevents participation restrictions.
  • Practices OT in an ethical manner.

  Manager

  • Considers social, economic, political, legislative and policy issues to plan, establish and manage service-delivery systems that promote participation of OT clients.
  • Applies management principles to ensure legal and ethical occupational therapy
    practice.

  Contributor

  • Uses and designs research to examine factors that enable full participation of individuals and populations and disseminates findings to consumer, professional, regulatory and health policy groups.
• ICF concept: Activities/activity limitations

  Practitioner

  • Analyzes everyday activities and occupations.
  • Evaluates and intervenes for factors that enable or limit expected, required or desired activities/occupations of clients of OT services.

  Manager

  • Plans, establishes and manages resources and service-delivery systems that reduce activity limitations and promote activities for individuals and populations of OT clients.

  Contributor

  • Uses and designs research to examine factors that enable activities and occupations of individuals and populations and disseminates findings to consumer, professional, regulatory and health policy groups.
• ICF concept: Body functions and structures/impairment

  Practitioner

  • Evaluates body structures/functions to determine their impact on activity and activity limitations.
  • Develops and implements theory-driven and evidence-based body structure/function interventions to reduce impairment to prepare for performance of day-to-day activities and to influence optimal health and well-being.

  Manager

  • Plans, establishes and manages resources and service-delivery systems that reduce impairments and promote healthy function of body functions/structures for OT clients.

  Contributor

  • Uses and designs research to examine factors that prevent deviations and loss of functions/structures to promote the health of individuals and populations and disseminates findings to consumer, professional, regulatory and health policy groups.
• Notes about the ICF concepts above 
  • Environmental factors make up the physical, social and attitudinal environment in which people live and conduct their lives.
  • Participation is involvement in a life situation.
    Participation restrictions are problems an individual may experience in involvement in life situations.
  • Activity is the execution of a task or action by an individual.
  • Activity limitations are difficulties an individual may have in executing activities.
  • Body functions are the physiological functions of body systems (including psychological functions).
  • Body structures are anatomical parts of the body such as organs, limbs and their components.
  • Impairments are problems in body function or structure, such as significant deviation or loss.
  • Functioning indicates nonproblematic aspects of health and health-related states.
  • Disability indicates impairment, activity limitations or participation restrictions.

  World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

Occupational therapy role descriptions

• Practitioner

  The OT practitioner, based on meaningful outcomes for clients, uses evaluation data to formulate and implement interventions to establish, restore, maintain or enhance functional and structural integrity, activity and participation in lifestyles that are optimally independent, productive and satisfying to clients.

  Graduates will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Establish therapeutic relationships with clients and caregivers and professional relationships with colleagues consistent with the Occupational Therapy Code of Ethics and Ethics Standards (AOTA, 2010).
  • Evaluate body structures/functions to determine their impact on engagement and participation in activities and activity limitations.
  • Develop and implement theory-driven and evidence-based body structure/function interventions to prevent, reduce, control or ameliorate impairment and to prepare for safe performance and participation in day-to-day activities.
  • Screen and assess client’s participation and participation restrictions, activity and activity limitations, functional and structural integrity and impairments, and occupational environment; document the findings and accurately interpret the results.
  • Formulate, implement and document theory-driven and evidence-based interventions that promote the client’s participation in life situations, health and well-being and to prevent participation restrictions.
  • Analyze day-to-day activities and occupations for their ability to enable the client’s independence, safety and satisfaction.
  • Develop and implement a transition plan in collaboration with clients in preparation for the discontinuation of OT services when appropriate.
  • Collaborate effectively in an interprofessional healthcare delivery model.
  • Practice OT in an ethical manner.
• Manager

  The OT manager plans, organizes, implements, staffs, directs and evaluates OT services; coordinates these functions with other health, education and work-related services; and promotes understanding of OT services.

  Graduates will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Use data when making resource and program management decisions and apply management principles and strategies to direct, monitor and assess OT services.
  • Relate the roles and functions of OT to other healthcare services.
  • Consider the influence of external factors, such as demographic trends, public laws, healthcare policies and reimbursement policies, on healthcare delivery services when managing OT service delivery models of care.
  • Promote interprofessional collaboration and referral.
  • Apply management principles to ensure legal and ethical OT practice.
• Contributor

  The OT contributor has a professional responsibility to recognize and influence healthcare within the context of world, national, state, community and local work environments. Contributors participate in the development and application of a scholarly body of knowledge within OT practice.

  Graduates will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Recognize, integrate and discuss issues about public health and OT practices, and articulate methods to effect change.
  • Use scientific and theoretical evidence to advocate for OT in various existing and emerging practice contexts.
  • Use and/or conduct research for consumers, professionals, regulatory and/or health policy groups that describes factors that enable or limit activities or occupations of clients and/or populations.
  • Find, analyze and integrate scholarly works from OT and other appropriate sources to inform proposal writing for grants and program development.
  • Design, implement and disseminate beginning-level research projects.