Occupation

Abstracts
Posters
providers may be unaware of or ignore these needs (Ly and
Goldberg 2014).
Occupational therapists are increasingly likely to work with men
who have a care role as either husbands, fathers, brothers or
sons, and in order to develop effective partnerships with service
users and their families, they need to be aware of strategies that
may support men as carers.
References
Age Concern (2007) Working with older men – improving Age
Concern’s services. Age Concern England.
College of Occupational Therapists (2010) Code of Ethics
and Professional Conduct. London: College of Occupational
Therapists.
Ly, A., R., & Goldberg, W., A. (2014) New measures of fathers of
children with developmental challenges. Journal of Intellectual
Disability Research, 58(5):471–484.
Rivard, M., T., & Mastel- Smith, B. (2014) The Lived Experience of
Fathers Whose Children Are Diagnosed With a Genetic Disorder.
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 42:
38–49.
World Federation of Occupational Therapists (2010) Position
Statement Consumer Interface.
Keywords
Children and families, Research, Practice – present and future,
Voluntary/third sector services
Contact E-mail Addresses
D.Davys@salford.ac.uk
Author Biographies
Deborah Davys is a lecturer in occupational therapy at the
University of Salford. Her doctoral thesis related to the siblings
of adults who have an intellectual disability and at post doctoral
level is exploring the care role of fathers of people who have an
intellectual disability.
Tracy Collins is a lecturer in the University of Salford. Her
doctoral thesis focused upon the experience of older widows
and at post doctoral level she is investigating the experience of
older widowers who had been carers.
Results/Conclusions: The guidelines the PPEs received to
assist in grading students was unclear and contributed to
the competency ratings being inaccurately converted into a
percentage mark. Since this research the guidelines have been
amended and now further research is being conducted to
examine if this has reduced the high grades.
Impact on Service Users: PPEs were commonly asking for
clearer definitions of the competencies when grading students.
Rutkowski (2007) states any risk of PPEs not fully understanding
the levels of competency is dangerous as it could lead them into
passing students where their colleagues may have failed them.
Clear Implications for occupational therapy: This study highlights
the need for United of Kingdom universities to ensure their
students are effectively assessed on practice placements as the
College of Occupational Therapy (2008) require and that the
universities provide placement educators with clear and accurate
guidance on how to assess students’ clinical performance
(Quality Assurance Agency 2007).
References
Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching (2009) University
of Bradford External Examiners Report; University of Bradford.
Bradford
College of Occupational Therapists (2008) College of
Occupational Therapy Pre-registration Education Standards, COT,
London
Health Professions Council (2009); Standards of education and
training guidance, HPC, London
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2007); Code
of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards
in higher education. Section 9: Work-based and placement
learning, Linney Direct, Mansfield.
Rutowski. K (2007) Failure to fail: assessing nursing students’
competence during practice placements; Nursing Standard 22
(13). Pp. 35–40
Author Biographies
Victoria Wilkinson (MSc, PGCHEP, BSc (Hons) OT. Victoria is a
lecturer at the University of Bradford who has an interest in
clinical placement grades.
P24
Evaluation of a placement assessment tool and
the guidelines a university issues to placement
educators
Wilkinson V, University of Bradford
Introduction: At some, United Kingdom (UK), universities
placement marks equates for a third of students’ degree
classification, therefore it is essential students are effectively
assessed on professional practice placements (College of
Occupational Therapy 2008, Health Professions Council 2009
and Quality Assurance Agency 2007). The Competency Based
Fieldwork Evaluation is a tool which is used to assess students’
clinical performance at a UK university. Stakeholders at this
university recommended the CBFE and the guidelines Practice
Placement Educators (PPEs) receive, to assess students, needed
to be evaluated (Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching
2009).
Methods: This was achieved through reviewing the competency
grades PPEs awarded students and how they translated these
grades into a percentage mark. Also a critically review of the
guidelines PPEs had access to when grading students was
undertaken.
P25
Occupational therapy in child and adolescent mental
health intensive community treatment
Baker H, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation
Trust
The Department of Health reports a growing number of referrals
to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with
cases continually increasing in severity and complexity (Kurtz,
2009). In addition to this, the availability of inpatient beds for
young people is limited nationally.
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the use of
alternatives to inpatient admission. Intensive home based
treatment has been found to be as effective as inpatient
admission for young people in improving function and in
maintaining these improvements (McDougall et al, 2008).
Several studies have mentioned the inclusion of Occupational
Therapy within the intensive community treatment teams for
children and adolescents, however there is little reference to the
role.
In Northumberland Intensive Community Treatment Service
(ICTS) the role of Occupational Therapy continues to progress
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