Fieldwork Supervision: More Education Is Warranted

The consensus within our profession is that the fieldwork experience plays an integral role in an occupational therapist's professional development. In 1923, the first educational standards requiring fieldwork experiences were approved by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Today, in addition to academic course work, 6 months of supervised fieldwork is a required prerequisite for the national certification examination. Summarizing a prevalent perspective on fieldwork, Presseller (1983) said, "The process and contem of fieldwork experiences have been debated over the years, yet the value of having an opportunity to apply theory to practice has never been denied" (p. 163) The "Essentials and Guidelines of an Accredited Educational Program for the Occupational Therapist" (AOTA, 1983) provide the profession's most recently accepted statement of the purpose of the fielclwork component of our professional prepa· ration The Essentials state, "The purpose of fieldwork is to proVide an indepth experience in delivering occupational therapy services to clients. There should be opportuni ties for supervised practice of occupa· tional therapist emry·level roles" (p 818)