Career Description

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association*, Occupational Therapy is skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. It gives people the "skills for the job of living" necessary for independent and satisfying lives.

* American Occupational Therapy Association. Retrieved April 24, 2006, fromwww.aota.org/featured/area6/index.asp

Mission Statement

To provide entry level professional skills in occupational therapy to a diverse urban population through evidence-based educational, fieldwork and community experiences. Graduates will be prepared to contribute to, and participate in the profession through direct service delivery, management of service delivery and research.

Educational Goals

The OT Program will prepare students to:

• Be active learners who utilize analysis and synthesis for critical thinking. Students will become self-aware, innovative, able to handle ambiguity and conflict and develop creative problem solving skills.
• Develop effective oral and written communication skills for collaborating with clients, colleagues, and families in a variety of contexts.
• Identify evaluate and apply research that supports practice decisions.
• Be life long learners who participate in and contribute to professional organizations and activities.
• Develop sound ethical practices and behaviors as practitioners, consultants, educators, researchers and administrators.
• Understand and intervene in social policies, communities, organizations, groups and individuals.
• Be role models who demonstrate a commitment to the college, community and the profession.

Program Philosophy

In line with of The American Occupational Association’s Philosophy of Education (AOTA,2003) , the Occupational Therapy Program at York College emphasizes how human beings are dynamic and complex in nature. That human beings are constantly interacting in many different environments through their participation in occupations. These interactions occur in many different contexts and provide opportunities for growth throughout the lifespan. Active participation in occupations fosters adaptation and new learning, which in turn leads to further participation in meaningful occupations that enable human beings to develop the necessary skills for survival and self-actualization.

The occupational therapy faculty believes that learning is a collaborative process with students as active participants; the faculty will provide the varied contexts for learning experiences through both meaningful activities and didactic instruction. The students become increasingly self-directed in their movement through the program. Through the collaboration between faculty and students, students build upon prior academic knowledge, integrate new knowledge, learn clinical reasoning and how to become more self-reflective. The outcome of this process is a graduate who can synthesize their leaning and experiences from the program and go on to improve the lives of individuals who need occupational therapy services.

Our goals for our graduates are consistent with both the York Vision and the AOTA Vision in that we see our graduates as they go out into the workforce as critical thinkers who will continue to engage in ongoing learning, continue to improve their skills, contribute to the growth of the profession in practice and/or research in their communities, regionally and nationally.

Curriculum Design

The curriculum design of York College CUNY Occupational Therapy Program is based on the interaction of content knowledge concepts and occupational therapy process concepts. It is our belief that the interaction of these delineates the substance and the process of what occupational therapists know and do.Furthermore, the matrix of these interactions serves as an organizer for the relationship between the courses in our curriculum and the content within them.

Knowledge Concepts

Foundations. Foundational knowledge includes introductory factual and conceptual knowledge related to client factors (e.g., body structures, body functions, values, beliefs), performance skills (e.g., sensory, motor, emotional, cognitive) and patterns (e.g., habits, routines), performance contexts and environments (e.g., cultural, personal, physical), activity demands (e.g., objects properties, space demands, social demands), areas of occupation (e.g., activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, work, education, play), ethics, social justice, clinical management and clinical research.

Skills. Skills build on foundational knowledge, and include the acquisition and practice of cognitive operations necessary for problem identification and problem resolution, clinical reasoning, as well asanalysis of clinical and research data;procedural skills necessary for analyzing and sequencing client task performance, administering assessments and interventions,eliciting adaptive responses, implementing activities using effective strategies; affective skills necessary for engaging and enabling client collaboration in the occupational therapy process, receiving and responding to feedback, valuing perspectives of others, weighing ethical issues, and therapeutic use of self; motor skills necessary for assisting clients, constructing and adjusting client devices, administering assessments and interventions, and arranging and adapting the physical environment.

Applications. Applied knowledge includes the integration of foundational knowledge and skills, using multiple theoretical approaches (e.g., developmental, motor learning, cognitive-behavioral, prevention) for implementing the occupational therapy process for clients, populations and organizations using various service delivery models (e.g., consultation, rehabilitation, home health, outpatient, community health), with sensitivity for cultural contexts, and social justice.  Application also includes analysis and evaluation of client progress, new knowledge acquired from the research literature, and ethical issues associated with the occupational therapy process.

AOTA Commission on Practice. (2008). Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain & Process, 2^nd ed., AJOT, 62, 625-683.

Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

The Occupational Therapy Process

Effective Fall 2011

Screening Procedures for Occupational Therapy Program

1. Screening takes place during the Spring semester for Fall acceptance into the program.
2. Students can download the Occupational Therapy program application from the department’s website, or can request a hard copy from the department’s office.
3. Screening takes place during the Spring semester for Fall acceptance into the program.
4. York College transcript, or York College evaluation of transfer credits for students transferring into York College.

Acceptance into the Occupational Therapy Program

Approval by the Occupational Therapy Screening Committee. This committee bases its recommendation on the following screening criteria:

1. Department of Occupational Therapy Application and two specific letters of reference.
2. Completion of a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer work under the supervision of an Occupational Therapist.
3. Minimum grade point average of 2.80 and required courses.
4. On site writing sample composed on a computer. Applicants are not considered accepted into the program until they receive a letter of acceptance from the Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy.

Applicants are not considered accepted into the program until they receive a letter of acceptance from the Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy.

All Occupational Therapy courses must be taken in the prescribed sequence.

The Occupational Therapy BS/MS Degree takes three and a half (3.5) academic years to complete. The program consists of 84 specialized occupational therapy credits, spread over seven (7) semesters.

Promotion and Retention:

Completion of the course of study approved by the student’s occupational therapy faculty advisor. Completion of courses in specified sequence, good academic standing in the College and in the Occupational Therapy Program and completion of Master’s level project is required for graduation.

1) Program Standards:

Students will also be required to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.80 in each semester of their undergraduate coursework (300 and 400 level courses) per semester and 3.0 in each semester of their graduate coursework (500 and 600 level courses) per semester. Students who fall below these minimum requirements will be placed on academic probation and will be given one semester to raise their GPA to minimum standards. A failure to raise the GPA to minimum standards will be considered grounds for dismissal from the OT program. In addition, being placed on academic probation for any two semesters during the 3.5 years of the professional curriculum will be grounds for dismissal.

*Students will not be allowed to transition from the BS to the MS component of the program with an academic deficit (overall GPA for 300 and 400 level courses must be 2.80).

*Students will not be eligible to graduate with an academic deficit (overall GPA for 500 and 600 level courses must be 3.0)

2) Course Standards for Retention:

The lowest acceptable grade for Occupational Therapy course is a “C-“. Students who receive below a “C-“ grade must repeat the course. Students will have only one opportunity to repeat any course.

A grade of “D” or below in any two courses within the 3.5-year curriculum, or failure of two courses in one semester, constitutes grounds for dismissal from the occupational therapy program. Two failures of Level II Fieldwork constitute grounds for dismissal from the program.

3) Continuing review by the Occupational Therapy Evaluation and Selection committee.

The Occupational Therapy Evaluation and Selection Committee may dismiss a student from the program due to any infraction(s) of the Rules of Student Conduct on Campus or a breach of Occupational Therapy Ethics. This includes cheating, plagiarism, the use of drugs, and / or other activities mentioned under the Guide for Student Development.

4) Length of time in program

Students who are accepted into the Occupational Therapy program for the BS/MS degree have five and a half (5.5) academic years to complete the program. All Fieldwork Level II experiences must be completed within 12 months of completing academic coursework. Please note that Fieldwork Level I experiences cannot be substituted for Fieldwork Level II experiences.

Please Note: In the event of dismissal from the program due to any of the items (1 – 4) mentioned above, the student has the right of appeal, first to the Occupational Therapy Evaluation and Selection Committee, and second, to the York College Academic Standards Committee. The student must come before the Committees in order to continue in the program. Students who enroll in a semester for OT 641 and 642 will be considered as registered for a full-time program.

* The OT course sequence, credit allotment and curriculum organization are subject to change.

Department of Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Sites