Reflections on ¾ of a Year Like No Other
Stephen B. Kern, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA; Tina DeAngelis, EdD, OTR/L; E. Adel Herge, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, and; Audrey Zapletal, OTD, OTR/L, CLA
In January, we here at the Jefferson College of Rehabilitation Sciences welcomed the New Year, celebrating in routine and ritualistic ways that all of us have done many times before. Graduation ceremonies were less than six months away. Who knew then what was about to erupt in a few weeks. On March 19th, the Occupational Therapy faculty received notice from the University Provost that on-campus classes and clinical rotations were immediately suspended due to COVID -19. Suddenly, all of us were thrown off our typical daily routines and immersed into the virtual world of ZOOM. We were probably not alone thinking, “this will only last for a month at best”. Well, here we are 6 months later and Higher Education is in a new reality. Despite being thrown off center, there is still much to celebrate!
Faculty and students alike scrambled to create their work environments at home. This was challenging for some. For example: one student’s parents downsized by selling their home and moving to a smaller town house only to wake up one morning with all of their college age children moving in with them. Basements, bathrooms, space under tables all morphed into unique work environments where students and faculty alike created their new space. We all got used to children and pets appearing and participating in classes, half-naked intruders walking behind learners and faculty, and new interior design ideas for our own spaces. We all anxiously and trepidatiously shifted our centers, grounded ourselves in this new cyber-world and got on with the work of the semester.
All lecture-based and lab courses continued online (with few exception). Courses were redesigned, restructured, & or reimagined for students to complete course requirements without major interruption and still achieve course learning objectives. Even our East Falls Saturday Speaker Series shifted to 100% online. We crossed the finish line for the semester with minor scrapes and bruises. For example, our East Falls 2nd year Level I students had only a few hours left to complete at their fieldwork sites, made their best efforts to close out their responsibilities. Our 3rd year OTD students who were in the final weeks of completing their capstone projects suddenly found themselves unable to return to their sites. The quick thoughtful responses from both faculty and students resulted in them completing their projects with the data they had available to them. This group pivoted and successfully presented their final work via zoom to celebratory cheers from family, friends, peers, site staff, and the department faculty! Hardy & heartfelt congratulations are in order for this cohort who received their doctoral degrees, at a Commencement Ceremony unlike any before, at Jefferson’s first virtual graduation.
Right next to them were the 2020 BSMS-Center City and MSOT-East Falls cohorts who had been counting down days to their graduation. These cohorts also demonstrated flexibility above and beyond expectation and pivoted quickly. MSOT-East Falls completed their Level II fieldworks through creative means under the guidance of Dr. Mary Beth Thomas and the skillful team of clinical educators. Many with less than 2 weeks of fieldwork remaining, developed new programs to be implemented in the uncharted realm of telehealth. The Center City BSMS cohort, with aplomb, presented their final capstone projects to a virtual Create Day audience. Congratulations are also in order for our MSOT cohorts on their completion of their programs and their “walk” across [the stage] to accept their diplomas, dressed in their academic regalia. Granted, the stage may have been a hallway in their home, the backyard or front steps. However these groups received their diplomas, their families, friends, and faculty collectively celebrated their achievements!! We are looking forward to a time in the future where we can all recognize both groups’ accomplishments with the requisite high fives, hugs, and other forms of celebration!
Other students were faced with a major disruption to achieving their professional goals within the expected timeline. Third year East Falls MSOT students had to accept the challenges of the new clinical environment. During the summer, they shifted their focus on their academics and prepared for an unclear start date for fieldwork placements in the Fall. The second year Center City MSOT and OTD students were 2 or 3 weeks away from completing their first placement when clinical suspensions occurred. One by one, and then several clinical sites informed students and academic OT programs across the country that fieldwork experiences were suspended in order to maintain safety for staff and patients and of course students, too. During this period of anxiety and not knowing when things fieldwork would resume, another graceful pivot was required! How can the department keep the students engaged while we all waited for the suspension to be lifted and clinical sites to once again accept students for their level II fieldwork placements? Quickly, faculty responded by modifying the sequence of classes as much as possible while maintaining the integrity of the curriculum design and learning objectives. Two courses, usually taught to the MSOT students in Summer II after they completed their Fieldwork Level II were shifted to Summer I – online, of course. Their final seminar and projects occurred during online Summer II. The 2ndyear OTD students were less impacted; however this group also demonstrated grace and patience. Their summer courses were rearranged, occurring earlier, so that they were ready to begin fieldwork once the clinical sites reopened. Fortunately, their capstone projects and experiences were reconfigured to occur over one spring semester beginning in January of 2021 while adhering to quality and rigor so their graduation would not be delayed!
Faculty made contingency plan after contingency plan. Modifying one previous plan with a new one as new information emerged. Zoom meetings were scheduled at 7am, or 7pm, it didn’t matter. Faculty who never followed state and federal Departments of Education, and Health and State Department’s websites were now consulting those sites daily! Collectively our desire was for all cohorts to experience only minimal disruption in their curriculum sequence while offering the same quality education in a revised format. News from the US State Department announced all international air travel was grounded, it was clear that the yearly fieldwork experience in Morocco was also suspended.
One bright light during this time, or rather a super-nova of sorts goes to our amazing academic fieldwork coordinators. They managed everything thrown at them, never losing determination to make this work for everyone! Dr. Lyons and Instructor Leonard in Center City and Dr. Thomas and Adjunct Faculty Ashley Seiver designed an innovative, simulated, online fieldwork experience for all first-year students. These designs represent the first fully simulated fieldwork experiences in the Department of Occupational Therapy! (and as part of our national reputation for innovative educational design, the department became one of the first to implement simulation for a fieldwork experience in the nation).
Using Zoom platforms, the fieldwork teams zipped and zapped learners from experience to experience. In Center City, the unique delivery allowed for second year MSOT and OTD students to expand their leadership experiences and immerse themselves into the fieldwork educator role. In East Falls, recent graduates from the OTD program joined from across the country to facilitate the small group learning and debriefing sessions. This experience was presented to our accreditors (ACOTE) who gave the stamp of approval for us to implement the plan. Holding our collective breath, students cautiously entered into this new fieldwork experience. In the end, it received good reviews from students and faculty alike.
And, while there were major disruptions resulting in the Center City MSOT students’ graduation being delayed from August to December 2020, all MSOT students are now all placed in their 2nd level II fieldwork experience. For all of this to happen it required our department leader, Dr. Catherine Piersol, to work tirelessly with every University office (tuition, housing, financial aid, Complio, the Registrar, and probably housekeeping, too) to make this all happen smoothly for every student! Sure, there were hiccups (maybe some tears of frustration), “but still we persisted”.
Now we are fully implementing the redesigned hybrid version of the three OT curricula in Center City and “ultra-hybrid” in the East Falls weekend hybrid weekend program! Face masks and shields, cleaning supplies, and other PPE as needed are in full use and can be seen in all our classrooms and laboratories. Fieldwork level I and traditional (level II) are in progress. It’s beginning to feel more like a routine; altered habits have been developed; occupational balance is close to being restored (depending on your roles!) and new ways of teaching and learning are being discovered, measured, and shared.
We are looking forward to returning to campus, taking off our masks, and connecting with each other (maskless and standing less than 6 feet apart). But until then, we will continue to see you on zoom, and on campus in labs! Lastly, we look forward to celebrating at the 2021 Commencement Ceremony in May. Additionally, we are hoping that as many of the 2020 graduates return to campus to participate in the ceremony, too.
