Meeting & Agendas

Fred Alvardo called the meeting to order at 6:05 pm

New Adjunct – Angel Borrego hired in Spring 2013. We will be hiring one additional OTA faculty in Spring 2014.

CI Training is a series of three workshops that includes Introduction, Intermediate and Advance sessions.

This Bill has proposed that the credit hours be changed from 72 down to 60 and should go into effect in 2015. This discussion is not over. Our program is 72 credit hours. The national average for OTA program is 70-72 credit hours. The Core Curriculum is 15 credits and those 15 credits cannot be touched. So the reduction in 12 credit hours has to be out of OTA courses content. There is a loop in the law. We can request a waiver. Dean Klein posed this question to the group, “What are your thoughts on reducing the Credit hours to 60? How will that impact you, the program?” This is in our strategic plan and we will continue to collaborate with the college’s direction on how we move forward on this issue over the next year. Discussion: Senate Bill Comments: The implementation of SB 497 could potentially result in the following outcomes: • A potential decline in quality of patient care as well as patient safety (graduates who are less prepared to meet the increasingly complex needs of patients). • An increase in the educational gap between OTs and OTAs which may affect technical skill competency and compromise patient safety. • A potential for decreased executive thinking and clinical reasoning as the OTA may not have to fully develop in a shortened program. • A potential for increased liability issues (practicing OTAs who are less than fully prepared could jeopardize their licensure; OTs being held accountable for supervising less than fully prepared OTAs risk their licensure as well). • Decreased employment marketability. Employers would be responsible for bridging the educational gap if OTAs enter the workforce with inadequate preparation. Additionally, OTs may decline to supervise less than fully prepared OTAs (due to the liability issues described above). • Decreased quality of academic content. Academic programs would still be responsible for meeting all accreditation standards in significantly less time; potential for “watered down” curriculum.

Dean Klein proposed increasing acceptance to 22 students. Dean Klein’s safe recommendation is to admit two more students and possibility doing the Noel-Levitz Student Retention Inventory earlier like at orientation? Is there a score or number of red flags? Administer it sooner. Include a second year student to speak to the in-coming cohort during orientation was a suggestion and all agreed this would implemented in 2014.

Concern was raised about students being heavily recruited by home health agencies. Students while in the program are discouraged from pursuing this area of practice as they do not have the skills required and nor the collaboration needed for mentoring and skill development. Marcia Desy who works in home health stated that even a seasoned nurse found home health to be really lonely. You are on call all day, no peers to talk to. Some outpatient clinics also provide home health visits. This has been a nice opportunity for students to see what home health settings/treatments are like. Program is exploring opportunities for all students to at least get exposure to home health during the level one rotations.

Melanie Reyes stated, “We are updating our assessments.” And asked, “What are the clinic sites using for assessments?” Assessment Tools Currently Being Used in the Community o Sensory Profile (Adult and Adolescent versions) o Quick Neurological Screening Test – 3 o TVPS-3: Test of Visual Perception Skills - Third Edition o Motor-Free Visual Perception Test - 3 (MVPT-3) o Occupational Self-Assessment (OSA) o Functional Independence Measure (FIM) o Mini-BESTest: Balance Evaluation Systems Test o The Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool (MOHOST) o The Short Child Occupational Profile (SCOPE), o TINETTI BALANCE ASSESSMENT TOOL o Barthel ADL Index (or Barthel Scale) o Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) o Allen Cognitive Level (ACL)

a.) Self Study is in process. b.) Sometime in January we will get the date for the On-Site Review. Reviewers will want to meet with current students, recent graduates, fieldwork educators and employers. Department Chair to be coordinating interview teams and will be contacting all needed parties.

We had 80% of students enrolled through the program without interruption. We use ACOTA Standards for bench marks for the goals. All program goals for the past 3 years have been met.

We are surpassing the national pass rate. 90% pass rate on first attempt. We are meeting this goal for the program.

The applicants are better qualified. The number of applicants is continuing to increase. The challenge is we are seeing more and more students re-applying a 2nd and 3rd time. We accept 20 students every Fall. Discussion resulted in one possible recommendation that we look at admitting 1-2 more students. We are continuing to track program completion data and will analyze it for support of increasing number of cohort. We have 2-3 years of attrition data.

TracDat has evolved over the past year and it is going to provide us with an excellent process to gather data and use it for making any curriculum changes

SSI has been in existence for the last four years. We utilize the Noel Levitz Student Retention – General Coping scales. The survey will provide the student and faculty information that may raise a red flag and that can then be addressed and student referred to needed resources. This last year we have improved on catching problems up front and sending the student to the Health Science Counselor. The question was asked “Can we administer the Noel-Levitz earlier than the start of the first semester. For example at the orientation in July?” Recommendation from the committee was accepted and the Noel-Levitz Student Retention Survey will be administered and reviewed with the student within the 1-2 week of classes.

We will implement the new level one fieldwork that focuses on the psychological and social factors that impact engagement in occupation.in the OTHA 1163 – Psychosocial Level 1 in the summer semester fieldwork 48 hours. These will be primarily on-traditional, community based programs/settings. This has been part of our strategic plan in developing fieldwork sites that are non-traditional.

Spring FW1 Primary sites are Schools, OP clinics. The past 2 years all students rotated through Dell Children’s Hospital and Hippo Therapy. We hope to continue to provide students’ exposure to a variety of practice setting during the pediatric FWI rotation. During the Fall FW1 rotation we have been able to consistently have all students experience the same variety of practice settings. Students attend debriefing sessions on site and on campus, as well as blackboard discussions.