The Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy (EL-OTD) program aims to create and maintain a high-quality clinical education program that supports students in realizing their goals, prepares students to become entry-level occupational therapists and adheres to Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) standards.
Fieldwork Experiences
Supervised fieldwork experiences in occupational therapy are an integral part of the educational process and professional preparation. These experiences are intended to complement academic preparation by offering additional opportunities for growth, learning to apply knowledge, developing and testing clinical skills, and for validating and consolidating those functions that comprise professional competence.
All OTD Entry-Level Professional program students are required to complete two Level I fieldwork rotations and two Level II fieldwork rotations.
- Level I fieldwork experiences (2 credits each) are broken into:
- Part A, which will be completed during term 3 (summer)
- Part B, which will be completed during term 5 (spring)
- Level II fieldwork experiences (6 credits each) are full-time, 12-week internships
broken into:
- Part A, which will be completed during term 7 (fall)
- Part B, which will be completed during term 8 (spring-summer)
Review the OTD Entry-Level Professional Program Student Manual for additional information about fieldwork experiences.
Doctoral Capstone
Students in the OTD Entry-Level Professional program will complete a culminating scholarly project as a condition of graduation. This project is known as the doctoral capstone.
The doctoral capstone is an individualized project that includes a final version of students’ capstone proposal that is suitable for professional dissemination about the findings from the student's scholarly work, relating theory to practice and demonstrating synthesis of advanced knowledge. It is an independently mentored project as partial fulfillment of a post-professional clinical doctoral education in which students implement a scholarly process that evaluates or defines professional practice, service delivery and/or professional issues.
Review the OTD Entry-Level Professional Program Student Manual for additional information about the doctoral capstone.
Criminal Offenses, Background Checks, Drug Testing
The Division of Occupational Therapy and Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences reserve the right to require students to undergo background screening to meet clinical agency requirements. Screenings may include a criminal background check, drug screening and/or fingerprinting.
Positive criminal background screening results may hinder a student's clinical placement and opportunity for state licensure. Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Division of Occupational Therapy recommend students contact their state board of licensure to clarify any concerns regarding licensure.
Should a student be convicted of a criminal offense after submitting the initial background screening, the student must immediately disclose this to the Division of Occupational Therapy program director for review with the clinical site. The clinical site will determine whether the student will be permitted to continue to participate in clinical. Any such incident may jeopardize the student's enrollment at the University and licensure in some states.
