Preliminary assessment of a fieldwork education alternative: the fieldwork centers approach.

OBJECTIVE In response to an acute shortage of clinical fieldwork placement opportunities, faculty members of the Department of Occupational Therapy at Tel Aviv University in Israel formulated the Fieldwork Centers Approach (FCA) as an alternative approach to fieldwork education. Under the FCA, groups of two to eight students were assigned to one facility. The number of participating supervisors, who shared all supervision activities, ranged from two to six. Supervision approaches included both one-to-one and group supervision. This article presents the results of an evaluation of the FCA by the first group of students who participated in it. METHOD Twenty-five students were surveyed twice, once after they completed their Level I fieldwork and again after they completed their Level II fieldwork. RESULTS Upon completion of Level I fieldwork, 26% of the students indicated that they perceived advantages in the FCA; this percentage rose to 74% upon their completion of Level II fieldwork. No significant differences were found between the students' fieldwork level and their preference for the FCA vs. a strictly one-to-one, supervisor-student approach. Of the five learning experiences unique to the FCA, four, which received high ratings, represented specific learning experiences and one, which received low ratings, represented a psychological learning experience. CONCLUSION Results indicate that the FCA is a promising approach to fieldwork education. Overall, student evaluations made upon completion of Level II fieldwork were more positive than those made upon completion of Level I fieldwork. Additional research is needed to determine the reasons for this shift in students' evaluations.