Meeting & Agendas

Estrella opened the meeting at 5:55pm and welcomed everyone. Committee Chair present but had laryngitis. Pina Shah, OTR joined the meeting via phone.

Estrella shared a PowerPoint slide which outlined the purpose of the committee to the group and explained that all input is taken seriously and considered valuable to the success of the program. She reminded them that the committee only meets one time per year. She then went on to announce the 2019 Accreditation Interim Report was accepted with no recommendations and the program is on target for full review in 2024/25 with a Self-Study starting in 2023. Estrella then went on to discuss the entry points for OT and OTA. OTA will now have Associate and Bachelor entry points. There are no current Bachelor programs but anticipate institutions will be starting Baccalaureate level programs soon. The program students are asking lots of questions. A Bachelor program will likely have more general education and management and theory courses. Estrella mentioned that TWU would like to partner with us and Estrella will help to explore opportunities. New ACOTE standards were adopted in Fall 2018. The program has been reviewing the curriculum and working to make sure we are meeting all standards. Some discussion followed about Master's level OT program. Question raised also about a Bachelors in Physical Therapist Assistant. Estrella responded that she hadn't heard anything.

The program has met all goals except #7 and 8 as listed in the Powerpoint. #7 (employment within 6 months) happened in 2018 but only with lots of PRN work. Students are piecing together PRN work to get full time work. Most students are going into long-term care, home health, and pediatrics. The employer survey return rate is poor with only three surveys being returned om 2019. Questions were raised about how they were sent out and the use of Survey Monkey and who is receiving them. Estrella explained the process and suggestions were made to have the student hold the employer supervisor accountable or have the survey go to the employer while also letting the student know. Macy Schepis also suggested sending a postcard to the employer with a link to bypass e-mail filters. Pat Recek also suggested having a QR code as an option. The graduate survey has good results and allows the program to capture personal emails in the last program semester. Questions about timing of sending the survey and need to collect information about student debt which requires sending it out even earlier than six months. Wendy suggested six months and one year; however, there are problems with changing jobs and surveys not getting to person needed.

The program continues to do really well with 100% pass rate again on exam. However, the new graduating class is struggling to find jobs. Highlights from this past year include finally having SOAP notes done electronically. The program is using BlackBoard as a tool to do electronic documentation. The process is built into the curriculum and starts easy in the first semester and builds to the fifth semester. There were some comments about student employment including finding ways to include home health since many students end up in this area. Estrella mentioned that this was tried last year with the level two students. They worked with an employer in Kyle. There were challenges with caseload not being steady enough. Question about whether the person they were working with was full-time and if there would be more opportunities with a full-time versus part-time staff member. Ashley suggested reaching out to previous students. Macy also suggested making the coursework hybrid again with a combination of locations. Wendy also suggested a simulation of home health and Michelle suggested assisted living as home health.

There has been a decrease in the number of applicants for the last two years. The PTA program and the other programs in health sciences are seeing similar decreases. Three reasons that are mentioned include online program OTA program available, job market and entry points. There has been some discussions about what can be put online. Tiffany shared a friend that did an online program but would have preferred to do ours. Scott also mentioned a COTA that did an online program but his skill set was low and he wished that he had done on campus. Estrella mentioned that the quality of candidates was high and we had 20 good ones. She mentioned that there may be some that didn't get in that go to online programs. Amy's vision is for the program to shift and give more flexibility since we are established and the labs could still be here with online lecture. Estrella also mentioned evening and weekend options. She stressed that we will need to continue this discussion in the future. There are no anticipated changes to the admission criteria.

No changes are needed this year.

Estrella announced that she has accepted the Associate Dean position for Health Sciences effective January 1st. She also mentioned that Kim Taylor moved to adjunct in Fall 2019. Amy Anderson moved to temporary full-time to replace Kim but will now assume the interim Department Chair duties and Renee Kilbride will join as full-time. Both positions will be posted in January 2020. There will also be a posting to fill Amy's Instructional Associate position. Only challenge comes from the fieldwork level two rotations and having enough locations. Help is needed from the committee with this especially in long term care.

This SWOT is being done by students also. Results of the SWOT for the committee are below: Strengths: 1. Always prepared for caseload 2. Preparedness of students for fieldwork 3. Documentation 4. Support provided by faculty to students 5. Level of confidence from being part of a community 6. Bring reality to the student about the market 7. ACC name is well received 8. Support for health science division and college-we have what we need 9. Cost of tuition Weaknesses 1. Instruction during business hours 2. Challenge of clinical rotation sites in our service area-may be compressed Opportunities: 1. Hybrid instruction 2. Nights and weekends 3. Classroom courses could be recorded 4. Intro to telehealth 5. GG training 6. Simulation and standardized patient 7. Expand to other ACC regions 8. Online management course 9. Bachlors program 10. Modalities (ACP)-Ashley able to do training Threats 1. Online instruction 2. New payment medicare reimbursement system 3. Difference of reimbursement between OT and OTA 4. Other programs in Austin area 5. Saturation of current COTA in field 6. Bachelor program