ABSTRACT

Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate the problem areas in the current clinical fieldwork of occupational therapy education which may guide the development of an effective strategy for managing clinical fieldwork for occupational therapy students.Methods : A close-ended self-reporting questionnaire was developed by the researchers and sent to 9 occupational therapy schools (2 four- year programs and 7 three-year programs) via mail. This survey was conducted between October 5th and November 31st in 2003 and 202 ques-tionnaires were collected from senior occupational therapy students. In analyzing data, chi-square test was used for categorical variables.Results : 89.9% of respondents was satisfied with the environment of the fieldwork places. 20-30% of the respondents reported that they were not satisfied with the programs and super-vision systems for fieldwork students even though the staff members of other disciplines were supportive in general. 80.3% of the respondents showed positive attitude toward the general ex-perience of the fieldwork. Although 85% of the respondents reported that they were obtaining in-formation and knowledge for their professional carrier through the fieldwork, 51% of the re-spondents reported that they had negative experiences during the fieldwork.Conclusion : According to the result of the survey, it can be inferred that the structure of the fieldwork education needs to be more systematically organized in order to train the well-pre-pared entry-level occupational therapists. Since occupational therapy is classified as an applied science, the importance of clinical fieldwork cannot be over-emphasized in occupational therapy education. Therefore, it is suggested that further research on clinical fieldwork be carried out to systematically guide the clinical fieldwork of occupational therapy.