text originally published in OT news, February 2025. 

Introduction and Background

Diverse practice placements for OT students have become a common aspect of undergraduate programmes.  Anecdotal evidence collected by Maggie Bracher at the University of Southampton has identified that diverse practice placements enable students to develop a deep sense of professional identity and creativity in their practice. This notion is supported by Thew et al (2018) who discuss how diverse placement experiences can heighten internal development of occupation-focussed practice. They also claim that additional skills learned through these placements can drive innovation in services, following graduation.

Maggie Bracher introduced diverse placements to the University of Southampton undergraduate OT programme in the late 1990s and these have continued to develop in a range of areas including Charities/Third Sector and Health and Social Care environments. With the impact of Covid19 in 2020, forcing increased on-line/remote teaching, it was important to maintain and increase awareness of the value of non-statutory organisations such as REMAP through targeted tasks within virtual modules. This also enabled us to plan for how these organisations could be included for future in-person practice placements.

While diverse placements are usually undertaken in the third year by University of Southampton OT students; some have been trialled within second year placements. It is acknowledged in this case that more careful selection of students is necessary and that greater availability of long arm supervision may be required.

Experience of organising and supporting full time diverse placements, has enabled us to identify key pre-requisites for students wishing to engage in any variation of diverse practice:

• students need to demonstrate an interest in the diverse aspect of a placement
• students need to be secure in their own identity as health professionals.
• students need to have a good level of personal independence to enable them to perform without constant direction of an OT practice educator in situ
• students need to be academically sound to enable them to focus on the practice placement and have the confidence to research evidence relevant to their developing role in the organisation.

In a variation to pure role emerging placements, second and third year students have been placed in less traditional practice areas where they have explored the expansion or development of the OT role. These are considered non-traditional, as opposed to role emerging placements, under the umbrella of diverse practice. The placement described below uses this latter concept to a degree, by introducing an engineering charity to a specialist OT rehabilitation service, in order to expand the options available to their clients.

Rationale for a Second Year Collaborative Diverse Placement Involving REMAP

Maggie has volunteered with Southampton and West Hants REMAP branch for fifteen years and considers a close working relationship with engineers to be of particular benefit to OTs in their practice. She has involved Southampton and West Hants REMAP engineers with first and second-year OT students in key modules within the Southampton undergraduate OT programme since 2015. REMAP engineers have also contributed to the development of second year OT student design projects.

To progress this collaboration, students who show an interest in REMAP are now encouraged to register as volunteers in their own time, to enable them to visit clients alongside REMAP engineers. This provides opportunities to collaborate on the design of bespoke equipment for clients, to refine communication skills within a non-statutory environment and to gain a greater understanding of the valuable links between OTs and engineers.

In a recent second year placement, we used a further variation to the known diverse placement models. The student selected, using the criteria described above, completed a six week placement at Hobbs Rehabilitation working closely with OT specialists. Due to her keen interest in REMAP her additional goals for this placement were;

• to gain a deeper understanding of how REMAP engineers could benefit clients referred to Hobbs.
• to create an educational and guidance package for therapists on how REMAP might be involved with their service.

In addition to the regular supervision from OTs within Hobbs, the student received long arm supervision from Maggie on a weekly basis, with a focus on the links between the placement and REMAP. The student was allocated one day per week within her placement to focus on REMAP activity and to develop the above information package. The following provides feedback about the placement from the student, the practice educators and the CEO of REMAP.

The Student Perspective

My View on the Structure and Organisation of the Placement

The placement was well-organised and collaborative from the start. I appreciated having a dedicated day each week for REMAP. This structure allowed me to immerse myself in each part of the split placement fully. I felt well-supported throughout by both Hobbs and REMAP, with weekly supervision sessions from both organisations creating a cohesive and supportive learning environment. My practice educators were excellent, always making time for my questions and guiding me through targeted reflections on my experiences. This approach led to meaningful professional development and the achievement of my goals. The placement required open, honest, and frequent communication between myself and my practice educators, which significantly improved my ability to communicate my needs, capacity, and expectations – a skill I now highly value.

What I Gained from the Placement and Recommendations for the Future

The placement significantly boosted my confidence and skills in applying clinical reasoning and occupational therapy skills to source non-typical solutions for individuals. Both Hobbs and REMAP encouraged me to be creative and utilise my core OT skills and risk assessment abilities to explore innovative solutions. I was given the space to experiment, reflect, and learn from both successes and failures. Additionally, I gained increased confidence and skill in communicating with professionals from other fields. I had the privilege of meeting skilled clinicians, engineers, and CEOs who provided invaluable input for my final project. Their eagerness to hear my perspective helped deepen my professional identity and confidence in what occupational therapists bring to interdisciplinary team discussions. The placement also expanded my professional network, allowing me to build relationships with passionate professionals dedicated to rehabilitation, equitable access, and design. This experience has been both inspiring and motivating, I have continued to stay in contact with and engage in opportunities with both Hobbs and REMAP.

I recognise that, as a mature student, my communication, research, and organisation skills are informed by previous academic and professional experience, which was invaluable throughout. For future placements, I recommend providing a thorough briefing for students on the independent elements that differ from other placements. While this placement is an incredible opportunity to develop professional skills, it does require a significant amount of independent research, communication, and organisation.

The time I spent with Hobbs and REMAP has heavily influenced my professional identity, and I will draw upon this experience throughout my future practice. This placement perfectly suited my skills, passions, and learning objectives, and I am truly grateful to everyone who made it possible.

The Primary Placement Perspective

At Hobbs Rehabilitation our mission is to provide specialist neurological rehabilitation for adults and children, to contribute to educational resources for the development of clinical excellence and to participate in furthering the access to these at a national and strategic level. Our commitment to the professional development of Occupational Therapy students was further enhanced by this opportunity to support a diverse placement involving REMAP. The success of this project was furthered by close collaboration with Maggie Bracher before, during and at the close of the student placement. Other key factors that supported the practice educators at Hobbs to accommodate this placement included; well considered student selection, the student in question had extensive experience in an OT assistant role and demonstrated strong professional identity and self-management skills. Further to this, clarity and setting expectations regarding one full day per week that would be dedicated to the REMAP project outcome was critical to manage the competing priorities of this clinical and REMAP placement. Close communication with Maggie and clear objective setting in weekly supervision with the student was also important to ensure shared understanding and to allocate adequate time to balance the clinical and REMAP project tasks. This weekly supervision also gave rise to supervision for the student and allowed the student opportunity to share her learning regarding REMAP. This, in turn inspired the practice educators to select patients that the student could meet with a potential view for REMAP input.

The final project culminated in an excellent presentation from the student and an electronic resource file detailing the referral process and guidance for clinicians to make a robust referral, sample referral forms and client leaflets. Furthermore, through her live presentation, the student brought a refreshing and positive perspective for therapists to consider when making referrals to REMAP for the benefit of our patient population. This resource has been shared across the members of the multidisciplinary team (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and neuro-psychologists) at Hobbs, with centres across the south of England. We welcome any opportunity for future collaboration with this project and highly recommend that other placement providers are open to hosting a similar placement in the future.

The REMAP Perspective

Because of the nature of our organisation’s structure, it was key we identified a student who had the self-motivation and independence to work unsupervised. For us, this pilot placement went beyond being a one-way offer.  The student provided invaluable feedback on our service and was proactive in coming up with ideas on how we could remove barriers and perceptions of how the service was delivered to OTs and most importantly to help us reflect on how we could engage with more OTs.

Conclusion

While this diverse placement required a lot of preparation and communication to create the links between all involved, its success has provided us with the motivation to continue the

collaboration between REMAP, the University of Southampton undergraduate programme and a greater number of practice placements.

A ‘REMAP Hub’ group is being developed by Maggie for existing students and graduates who have registered to volunteer with their local REMAP panel. This group will ultimately develop guidelines and a protocol for students who wish to volunteer and this will be shared with the engineers within the local panels. The aim is to expand the Hub nationally to involve students from other Universities, who have contact with REMAP. It is hoped that increased awareness of REMAP among undergraduates, will translate to increased understanding and use of their engineers within practice.

REMAP engineers continue to be involved in the Southampton undergraduate programme, to promote the Charity. Graduates and students with experience of REMAP are also contributing to those sessions and show great interest in promoting REMAP to professional teams and other charities This engagement has increased interest in REMAP among their peers.

The ultimate aim of this development is to maintain and increase awareness of REMAP throughout and beyond occupational therapy undergraduate programmes; to introduce REMAP to undergraduate physiotharapy programmes and to encourage more proactive involvement of occupational therapists and physiotherapists with local REMAP panels.

Reference:

Thew M, Thomas Y and Briggs M (2018) The Impact of a Role Emerging Placement while a student occupational therapist, on subsequent qualified employability, practice and career path

Australian Occupational Therapy Journal (65) 198-207

Words by:

Maggie Bracher Chairperson Southampton and West Hants REMAP Branch

Rebecca Hamilton Second Year Occupational Therapy Student,  University of Southampton

Joanne O’Shea Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist, Hobbs Rehabilitation

Sue Boyes CEO, REMAP