Placement Options and Models

People tend to be most familiar with the traditional one-on-one "apprenticeship" placement model of clinical education. There is, however, a variety of other placement model options available to you. There is currently no 'gold standard' model of clinical education, and the decision about which model to use depends on a variety of factors involving yourself, your organisation, the role you perform, etc. Below is a brief summary of the placement model options. For more detail on each one, look to the navigation menu on the right.

Traditional "Apprenticeship" Clinical Placement Model: One student per clinical educator. The clinical educator structures the student learning experiences and provides direct supervision and role-modelling to the student throughout the course of their placement. The degree of supervision and the amount of responsibility given to the student may vary, depending on context.

Shared Clinical Placement Model: Clinical education of a student may be shared between two therapists within a workplace. Therapists may be working in different focus areas. For example, acute inpatient focus and a rehabilitation focus. This may be an attractive option if you are a practitioner who works part-time, or if your caseload is coupled with senior or management duties.

Collaborative Clinical Placement Model (2:1 model): One clinical educator supervises two or more students. Here the emphasis is on peer and self-directed learning where the students support each other and work together and the clinical educator acts as a resource, providing guidance to the student, monitoring performance and providing opportunity for the students to take increasing responsibility for the clients. Benefits of this model include development of team-work skills, increased problem-solving skills and a sense of shared-ownership of the learning experience (Thomas, 2003) "Students [undertaking a collaborative placement] need to be self-initiating because the supervisor is not always available"(S. Bartholomai, OT clinical educator, Ipswich Hospital [personal communication, May, 31, 2007). 

Refer to Fact Sheet 1.5 (PDF, 1.8MB): Benefits of the Collaborative student placement model

Refer to Suggestion Sheet 1.3 (PDF, 1.7MB): Tips for increasing efficiency using the collaborative placement model.

Inter-agency Clinical Placement Model: Occupational therapists collaborate with agencies from the voluntary/independent sector to provide part-time placements in related clinical fields, thus sharing the responsibility for student learning The student spends time in both settings (Fisher & Savin-Baden 2002). This model merges traditional with role-emerging models and provides opportunity for learning that is independent as well as role-modelled. This may be an attractive option if you work part-time or if the nature of your clientele means that unpredictable caseload fluctuations occur. This model provides a medium to promotes a working partnership between public, independent and voluntary sectors (Fisher & Savin-Baden, 2002).

Role-emerging Clinical Placement Model: Placement is undertaken by the student without on-site occupational therapy supervision in a setting where occupational therapy services are not routinely provided but where potential exists for an occupational therapy role to emerge. These placements promote more autonomous and self-directed learning, professional growth, and life-long learning. Supervision is provided by a member of the staff team at the agency. Formal supervision and assessment is carried out by an occupational therapist arranged by the facility or University.

Refer to Fact Sheet 1.6 (PDF, 1.9 MB): Benefits of role-emerging placements.

Refer to Suggestion Sheet 1.4 (PDF, 1.9MB): How to set up and manage a role-emerging placement

Project-focussed Clinical Placement Model: Similar to the role-emerging model, the student (or group of students) is given time off from the clinical work of the centre to work on projects for you such as developing a service or a resource for a facility. Project work may take place within a traditional or non-traditional setting with or without on-site occupational therapy supervision, but with on-site supervision by a staff member of the agency. For instance, this may be an option for private practice placements where opportunity for clinical experience with a steady caseload of suitable clientele for the student is limited.

Refer to Fact Sheet 1.7 (PDF, 1.8MB): Benefits of project-focused placements.

Refer to Suggestion Sheet 1.5 (PDF, 1.9MB): How to set up and manage a project-focused placement

Multiple Mentoring Clinical Placement Model: Multiple clinical educators to multiple students. This model promotes collegiality as students use one another as resources and also have opportunity to observe different educators approaching similar situations. The clinical educators, in turn have opportunity to work with students according to their strengths and interests. Multiple mentoring allows a clinical placement site to accept more students at one time, while minimizing stress on any one clinical educator (Nolinske,1995).

Refer to Fact Sheet 1.8 (PDF, 1.7MB): Benefits of the multiple mentoring student placement model

Refer to Suggestion Sheet 1.6 (PDF, 1.7MB): Tips for greater efficiency using the multiple mentoring placement model.

Be sure to have a look at our practice education videos page, which includes videos and suggestions about many of these innovative placement models!