OT students bring fresh perspectives to Rochester community

Samantha Boyd and Devin Earlywine pictured with fellow SMB Disability Solutions staff members at the micro-farm near Rochester, MN. 

Community emerging practice has been a part of the Occupational Therapy (OT) program at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy for over a decade, bringing students to sites across the state where they build critical relationships and offer insights that improve barriers in the environments around them.

Throughout the program, students complete two kinds of rotations, explained Dr. Traci Kruse, director of experiential learning for the OT program. During the first two years of the program, students complete four 40-hour rotations, called Level I, working with a different population on each one: children and youth, adults, older adults, and a rotation focusing on the psychosocial and mental health aspects of OT. Toward the end of their didactic program, students complete two 12-week rotations, called Level II, which they can elect to fulfill at a community practice site.

“Community emerging practice for OT students is shown to improve their leadership and clinical reasoning skills. There's a lot of benefits versus being in a traditional one-to-one placement,” Kruse said. “[Students] have to be flexible— it forces flexibility of thought. You can't be rigid, you have to be able to go with the flow. They're not highly structured environments.” 

SMB Disability Solutions in Rochester, MN, has partnered with the OT program as a community site for around four years, hosting both Level I and Level II students. The organization— founded by Steve Buehler, a graduate of the college’s OT program— specializes in supporting adults with brain injuries, mental health conditions, chemical dependency, and other physical and neurological disabilities through residential homes, day support, therapeutic agriculture programming, and more. 

“We're not a clinical setting— we're a very real world setting… There are a lot of curveballs. We support a wide range of disabilities, functional capabilities, and interests all in one small space,” said Devin Earlywine, SMB’s day support services director and primary liaison with the OT program. 

While Level I students usually spend a week observing and being introduced to the occupational therapy process, Level II OT students spend several months at the site, building relationships, conducting multi-level assessments, providing recommendations, and co-creating solutions that fit the season. Earlywine said a past Level II student researched adaptive equipment within SMB’s budget to increase independence for people in the day program facility, such as sink extenders in the bathroom, portable rubber ramps, wooden plaques so those with dexterity impairments can participate in card games, and more. 

“There are probably a dozen small adaptive things she researched and proposed that we were actually able to acquire the budget for, purchase, implement, and increase our folks’ independence— just from that one student.” Earlywine said. “Each time [a student] comes out… They usually leave us with a pretty well thought-out, well-researched plan for how we can implement some sort of changes, be them physical, training, [etcetera] that will make our programs better.”

Marie Olson, SMB’s day support services coordinator, said people in SMB’s programs often bond with OT students and look forward to their presence onsite. Some Level I students request to return for their Level II rotations, she said. Earlywine added that they keep in touch with some of the OT students even after they’ve left their rotations.   

“Even though we were founded on OT principles, we get very in the weeds in the day-to-day and it's really nice to have the continual fresh perspectives of people coming in with the interest and knowledge that can help us solve problems we might not have the time or brain power or experience to figure out,” Earlywine said. “The OT program has been very flexible, creative, open-minded and easy to work with.”

This year, SMB had their first OT student complete a capstone project on their site. In July, Samantha Boyd wrapped up her capstone on increasing accessibility in therapeutic horticulture, which she studied through SMB’s rural day program that takes place on a micro-farm. 

More specifically, Boyd examined how “applying universal design principles affects participation and accessibility at the program,” conducting an environmental analysis and assessing the program’s educational curriculum. The most significant deliverable of her capstone, in Boyd’s opinion, was a comprehensive binder full of resources and recommendations for how to increase and promote environmental accessibility. For example, Boyd said the micro-farm’s field paths are rough terrain and difficult for participants in wheelchairs to independently traverse, so she created a guide detailing the cost of various solutions. She did the same for adaptive garden and yard equipment, including sources for the tools, price breakdowns, and how it might support participation from attendees. For the colder seasons, she drafted educational curriculums with modules that would help prepare for the planting season.    

“I really tried to design [the binder] in a way that when the time comes where they do have the means and the resources to implement these changes, they're able to just open it up and go from there,” Boyd said.

Boyd said therapeutic horticulture isn’t a common setting or context for OTs and when searching for a site to complete her capstone, her findings initially pointed her to either Vermont or Hawaii. 

“I did a lot of searching, a lot of reaching out to these sites that are few and far between… and I hadn't even realized there was a site already within our own backyard,” Boyd said. “OTs’ involvement in the research around [therapeutic horticulture] is pretty minimal and limited…so it was really nice that I still was able to do my capstone project in a very niche area of OT and see the potential possibilities of how I could pursue an area like that career-wise.” 

The end of her capstone was bittersweet, she said, with every day at SMB bringing a new experience as well as staff and participants that she grew close to. 

“I learned skills and knowledge that I will use for the rest of my life, not only professionally, but personally, too,” Boyd said.