Research, Innovation and Practice Development Award Update

In April 2022 I was delighted to be awarded a research, innovation and practice development award from SS – People with Learning Disabilities.  I was keen to give occupational therapy students an opportunity to participate in a combined clinical and research placement, but work pressures meant I was unable to fit this this into my available hours.  The funding provided me with additional work time during which I could support a student or students to work on the research study with me.

I had already developed a survey which had been completed by participants, but had not yet analysed the data.  My aim was that a student or pair of students on placement would be able to gain experience in analysing and interpreting survey data as well as supporting dissemination of findings.

After discussions with a variety of Universities about potential placement models and timings, I agreed with the University of Brighton this would work well as a Diverse Placement and in the end agreed to take three BSc students.  I had only supervised one student at a time before, so was a little apprehensive, but excited to see how this worked.

My original plan had been to offer a 50/50 clinical and research placement, but after discussions with University staff agreed that 4 days research and 1 day clinical might work better.  This was to enable to students to have adequate time to get to grips with the research project, which was a completely new area for them, whilst ensuring they still had some experience in clinical practice with people with learning disabilities.

Each student spent their weekly clinical day in a different CLDT, supported by a named OT and the wider team.  Their time on the research project was mainly remote due to the students living in diverse geographical locations, but they did meet up in person periodically and found this beneficial.

Evaluation of the placement model:

What worked well?

• 3:1 model worked well – students were self-sufficient & supported one-another
• Time efficient for practice educator – wasn’t 3x the work of 1 student (although quite intensive at report times)
• Helpful for clinicians as time without student to complete reports/admin
• Seeing sensory work in practice helped students understand concepts in the survey
• Variety of views benefited project – student questions helpful for me to notice assumptions
• Length of placement worked well for the size of project
• The students created some great resources, which I’ll be able to develop further once the qualitative findings are finalised 

What was challenging?

• Tying in timing of project with an appropriate placement – project was delayed by almost a year
• Initial enthusiasm by some Universities then placement not needed –frustrating and time inefficient
• Additional work needed to adapt clinical placement competencies into project placement competencies
• 1 day clinical didn’t leave capacity if student or clinical OT off sick or if visits were cancelled – 2 might be better if wanting to have a clinical element
• The students all wished they’d been able to meet up F2F more – students who live closer together would make this easier 

Project Outputs

The students created some great resources including a Poster, PowerPoint, and Padlet, which I’ll be further developing once the qualitative findings are finalised.  They presented the initial results to our Trust learning disability OTs, who were really impressed with what they'd achieved.  The quantitative findings were recently presented in a poster for the SIE Annual Conference and shared on the University of Brighton SOLID blog, which can be accessed via the QR code.  The next aim is to write a journal article to submit for publication. 

Many thanks to SS – People with Learning Disabilities for supporting this award.  Also, to the three students, Rosie, Jo and Emma, for their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm; to the OTs and wider MDTs who supported the students in clinical practice; and to Audrey Yong and David Haines at the University of Brighton for advice and support re developing the placement model.

Student Quotes 

"Having this placement definitely helped me to have a better understanding of research which is something I would have not had the opportunity to do. Although we have a whole module on research at uni, learning about it and actually doing it are very different!"

" I…think that having three of us was a really good number as it allowed for more ideas, sharing of the workload and all of our knowledge and skills were different. This meant we could work to our own strengths and then support each other with anything we found more difficult, which gave the opportunity to learn a new skill".

"I think the placement worked well because we had clinical time too. I feel that without this it may have felt quite lonely and intense".

"Your flexibility in your approach to where and how we worked was very supportive to ensure we were not feeling isolated as a trio. It allowed us to meet on MS Teams and in person at suitable locations to meet our needs and look after ourselves".

"The six week period was sufficient for us to work on the project...The timescale was motivating and achievable".

"The placement helped me so much this term on our research modules".

"Once we had got to grips with things I really enjoyed pulling data together, analysing it and forming potential conclusions".