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Abstract

Student clinics (SC) provide experiential learning opportunities in occupational therapy (OT) education that develop clinical reasoning, while providing much needed rehabilitation to under and un-insured patients in the community. The Student Experiential Learning Clinic for Hand Therapy (SELC-HT) is a SC that used a logic model for planning, implementing, and evaluating the SELC-HT. The purpose of this study is to report on outcome data on students and patients, as outlined in the evaluation phase of the logic model.

The 13 OT master/doctorate students, who delivered care in the SELC-HT, demonstrated growth in self-reported hand therapy knowledge (p=0.002) measured with the Hand Therapy Certification Commission Self-Assessment Tool. Nine of the 12 students responding to alumni survey were employed in hand therapy positions shortly after graduation. Five students authored six manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals or practice journals about their work in the SELC-HT.

Of the 57 patients with baseline data, fractures were the most common diagnosis, and most patients were Black and males. One-third of injuries were due to violence, primarily gunshot wounds. At discharge (n=25) mean disability, measured with the Disability Arm Shoulder Hand, decreased 14.8 points (p=.001), which exceeds minimal clinical difference of 10.83. Statistically significant improvements in work disability (n=18) and work ability (n=21) also occurred. Most importantly, five patients who were not able to work at baseline had returned to work at discharge. These positive student and patient outcomes are due in part to the systematic planning and implementation of procedures defined in the SELC-HT logic model.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32873/unmc.dc.tso.1.1.06

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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