Occupational Therapy Practicum II

Course Description

Occupational Therapy Practicum II has students perfect methods and techniques expected of entry-level Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants while participating in observation, evaluation, treatment planning and treatment delivery under the direction of their supervisors.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, OTH is the Occupational Therapy prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 2 credits with an $11 lab fee, offered fall, with OTH1800 as prerequisite.

Contact hours are derived from the programme's own level I fieldwork convention. Daytona State publishes OTH1800 (Practicum I) at 1 credit and 45 contact hours; at the same rate this 2-credit course gives approximately 90 contact hours. That rate is far above a classroom course and well below the level II clinical rate — OTH2840 and OTH2841 both run at 5 credits and 320 hours — which is exactly what distinguishes level I fieldwork from level II.

Level I fieldwork exists to expose you to clients and settings alongside your coursework, not to make you competent. The expectation is observation, supervised participation, and professional behaviour — not independence. Level II, later in the programme, is where entry-level competence is developed and assessed.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the role of level I fieldwork within the programme.
• Function professionally within a clinical or community setting.
• Observe occupational therapy practice and describe what you observed accurately.
• Describe the setting's population, service model, and funding context.
• Participate in the evaluation process within your scope and under supervision.
• Administer selected assessments as delegated and as competency permits.
• Contribute to treatment planning under the supervising practitioner's direction.
• Deliver interventions under direct supervision.
• Apply activity analysis to a real client's occupations.
• Grade an activity up or down in response to a client's performance.
• Apply therapeutic use of self in client interaction.
• Communicate appropriately with clients, families, and staff.
• Adapt communication for clients with cognitive, sensory, or language impairment.
• Apply safe handling, transfer, and positioning technique.
• Recognise and report changes in client status.
• Apply infection control and standard precautions.
• Document within your scope using the setting's format.
• Apply HIPAA and confidentiality requirements without exception.
• Work within the OTA scope of practice and recognise its limits.
• Work effectively within an interprofessional team.
• Accept and act on supervision and feedback.
• Demonstrate reliability, punctuality, and professional appearance.
• Reflect on your performance and identify specific improvements.
• Describe how the setting's practice relates to your coursework.

Optional Outcomes

• Observe practice in a second setting or population.
• Participate in team meetings and case conferences.
• Observe interprofessional and family conferences.
• Contribute to a group intervention.
• Describe the setting's quality and outcome processes.
• Begin building professional references.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The role of level I fieldwork
• Professional functioning in a setting
• Structured observation
• Setting population and service model
• Participation in evaluation
• Administering delegated assessments
• Contributing to treatment planning
• Supervised intervention delivery
• Activity analysis with real clients
• Grading activities
• Therapeutic use of self
• Communication with clients and families
• Adapted communication
• Safe handling and transfers
• Recognising and reporting change
• Infection control
• Documentation within scope
• HIPAA and confidentiality
• Scope of practice limits
• Interprofessional team working
• Receiving supervision
• Professional conduct
• Reflective practice
• Relating practice to coursework

Optional Topics

• Second setting or population
• Team meetings and case conferences
• Family conferences
• Group intervention
• Quality and outcome processes
• Professional references

Resources & Tools

• Willard and Spackman's Occupational Therapy — the comprehensive reference for the profession.
• Pedretti's Occupational Therapy: Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction — the standard physical dysfunction text.
• Occupational Therapy for Physical Dysfunction (Radomski & Trombly) — the other standard.
• The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (AOTA) — the profession's organising document, and the vocabulary every course, examination, and evaluation uses. Learn its terms precisely rather than approximately.
• AOTA (aota.org) — the professional body; student membership is inexpensive and includes practice guidelines and examination preparation.
• NBCOT (nbcot.org) — free certification examination content outline and eligibility rules; read the eligibility page before you enrol anywhere.
• ACOTE (acoteonline.org) — free accreditation lookup and programme outcome data; verify your programme.
• Florida Board of Occupational Therapy Practice (floridasoccupationaltherapy.gov) — free; the authority on Florida licensure and scope.
• Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Rehabilitation Measures Database — free; the fastest lookup for any standardised assessment.
• Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (msktc.org) — free client and family education materials usable with real families.
• A study partner and the practice lab — the psychomotor and interpersonal skills in this programme are built only by repetition with another person.

Career Pathways

• Occupational therapy assistant — SOC 31-2011.
• Skilled nursing and long-term care — the largest OTA employer and a very large Florida sector.
• School-based practice — working with children under IDEA; a substantial employer with a school-year calendar.
• Early intervention — birth to three, frequently home-based.
• Inpatient rehabilitation and acute care.
• Outpatient clinics, including hand therapy and orthopaedic settings.
• Home health — frequently the best-paid OTA setting.
• Mental health and behavioural health settings — a founding area of the profession and one with renewed demand.
• Assisted living, adult day programmes, and community wellness.
• Paediatric outpatient and sensory clinics.
• Travel OTA work — higher pay for mobility once experienced.
• ⚠ Becoming an occupational therapist requires a separate master's or doctoral programme, and OTA coursework generally does not transfer into it — plan the pathway deliberately if that is the goal.

Special Information

⚠ Level I is about being present and professional, not about being competent

• You are not expected to know how to do this yet, and pretending otherwise is the mistake students actually make. Supervisors expect observation, questions, and safe supervised participation.
• Say "I haven't done that before" rather than guessing. Bluffing with a real client is unsafe, and it is noticed immediately.
• Prepare before each day. Look up the population, the common conditions, and the setting's typical interventions — the day teaches ten times as much when you can follow rather than merely watch.
• Ask questions at the right moment — not during a difficult transfer or a distressed client's session; afterwards, or in a quiet period. Knowing when to ask is itself professional judgement.
• Take notes after sessions, not during them, and never anything client-identifiable that leaves the building.
• Volunteer for the unglamorous work. Setting up, cleaning equipment, and helping with transport is how students become part of a team rather than an observer in the corner.
• Arrive early and stay to the end of the day. This is the largest single determinant of the reference you receive.
• Learn names — staff and clients — and use them.
• Write your reflections honestly, including what went badly. Reflection that only records successes teaches nothing and reads as evasive.

⚠ Therapeutic use of self is a skill, and it is assessed

• The relationship is an intervention in occupational therapy, not a pleasantry surrounding one. How you interact affects engagement, effort, and outcome measurably.
• Introduce yourself and explain what you are going to do, every time, and ask permission before touching anyone.
• Address the client, not the family member or the chart. This matters most with clients who have communication impairments, and it is where students most often fail.
• Match your approach to the person. Encouragement, humour, matter-of-factness, and quiet presence are all appropriate for different clients on different days.
• Listen more than you talk, and let silences sit — people fill them with what matters.
• Maintain professional boundaries while being genuinely warm; the two are not in tension, though students often think they are.
• Clients may disclose distressing things. Know your setting's reporting obligations, and know that you must report suspected abuse or neglect — Florida imposes mandatory reporting duties.
• Some clients will decline to work with you, and that is their right; do not take it personally.
• Bad outcomes affect you. Talk to your supervisor or the programme rather than carrying it alone.

⚠ Fieldwork placement requirements — sort these out early

• Health clearance and immunisations are required before entering a clinical facility — typically hepatitis B, MMR, varicella, tetanus, annual influenza vaccination, and tuberculosis screening.
• Level 2 background screening and drug testing are standard for Florida health care placements, and a facility may refuse a student it declines to screen.
• Current BLS certification is normally required, from a provider the programme accepts.
• You travel to the site, and placements are assigned rather than chosen. Transport is your responsibility, and a Florida placement can be a substantial drive.
• Fieldwork is unpaid and follows the facility's schedule, not a class timetable.
• Plan employment and childcare around the placement, not the other way round. This is the most common reason students struggle in fieldwork terms.
• Professional behaviour is assessed continuously, and a facility may end a placement for conduct.
• You are a guest and a learner. Work within your role, ask when unsure, and never exceed what you have been checked off to do.
• HIPAA applies fully. No photographs, no discussion of clients outside the team, and a social media post about a client ends placements and careers.

⚠⚠ OTA scope: the occupational therapist evaluates and establishes the plan; you implement it

• Occupational therapy is licensed in Florida under Chapter 468, Part III, Florida Statutes. Both occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants are licensed.
• The occupational therapist performs the evaluation, interprets it, and establishes the intervention plan. The OTA contributes to and implements it. An OTA may not perform the initial evaluation independently, may not independently modify the plan, and may not discharge a client.
• Contributing to evaluation is within scope; interpreting it is not. An OTA may administer selected assessments and collect data as delegated and as competency permits — deciding what the results mean for the plan is the therapist's.
• Grading an activity within the plan is different from changing the plan. That distinction is the everyday application of scope, and it is worth getting precise about early.
• Service competency is the governing concept. An OTA performs a delegated task once the supervising OT has established that the OTA performs it to the same standard — delegation is not automatic and it is task-specific.
• Report changes in the client's status promptly. A client who is not progressing, or whose condition has changed, needs re-evaluation by the therapist.
• Supervision requirements are set by rule and differ by setting, by payer, and between states — Florida's are not another state's.
• Documentation must support the billed service and demonstrate skilled care; therapy over-utilisation has been a major federal enforcement area, particularly in Florida skilled nursing, and an OTA has personal exposure.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies — verify current scope and supervision requirements with the Florida Board of Occupational Therapy Practice and your payer, not with a course guide.

⚠⚠ Accreditation, certification, and licensure — verify before you enrol

• The credential is the COTA — Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, following the certification examination administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT).
• ⚠⚠ Eligibility to sit that examination requires graduation from a programme accredited by ACOTE (the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education). Confirm a programme's ACOTE accreditation status before enrolling — this is the same trap as CAPTE for physical therapist assistants and CAAHEP for surgical technologists, and it is unrecoverable after the fact.
• Florida licensure follows certification. Practising as an OTA in Florida requires a licence from the Board of Occupational Therapy Practice, and the examination is the gateway to it.
• Fieldwork is an accreditation requirement, not merely a course. Level I fieldwork accompanies coursework; level II fieldwork is full-time and substantial, and both must be completed satisfactorily to graduate.
• ⚠ ACOTE sets a time limit for completing level II fieldwork after the academic coursework ends. Verify the current limit with your programme — a student who interrupts study between coursework and fieldwork can find the pathway closed.
• Background screening and drug testing are required for clinical placement and for licensure. A criminal record can end this pathway before it begins — raise any concern with the programme early and privately, before investing.
• Certification is maintained through continuing competence requirements on a defined cycle, and Florida licence renewal has its own continuing education requirements.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Verify accreditation, examination eligibility, and licensure requirements directly with ACOTE, NBCOT, and the Florida Board rather than relying on any course guide, including this one.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. In this prefix, however, programme admission and cohort sequencing constrain movement far more than the level digit does — occupational therapy assistant programmes are accredited and enrolled as cohorts, and transferring mid-programme is frequently not possible at all.

OTH1802 is 2 credits and approximately 90 contact hours with an $11 lab fee, offered fall at Daytona State, prerequisite OTH1800.

It is level I fieldwork. The level II full-time placements come later — see this repository's OTH2840 and OTH2841 guides, each 5 credits and 320 hours. ⚠ ACOTE sets a time limit for completing level II after coursework ends; confirm it with your programme.