Transition Choices

© Coppard, 2018

Programs currently offering a master’s degree in occupational therapy are faced with two choices…that’s right, two! With the ACOTE mandate to transition occupational therapy programs to the doctoral level by 2027, institutions are called to self-assess and decide the future of their programs. While one choice may be to close a program, I will not propose that as an option here. I will assume that programs will continue to offer occupational therapy education.

The two choices include:

1) transitioning from a master’s to a doctoral degree in occupational therapy, or

2) transitioning from a master’s degree to a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy assistant education.

The following are considerations to make the decision collaboratively with the respective institution’s administration:

Belief: Perhaps the most important aspect is the underlying belief of faculty about the doctoral degree. Do faculty genuinely believe in the doctoral degree? Do faculty support the move to doctoral level OT education? Are faculty motivated to engage in curriculum development? Will faculty be positive ambassadors of the doctoral OT degree? Are faculty willing to adjust their teaching approach to meet doctoral level expectations? Toxic behaviors and sabotage can unintentionally emerge that will cause difficulties and barriers in moving to the doctoral level. Is the Program Director or Chair an advocate of the doctoral degree?

Community needs: Which option best meets local and state community needs? What are the job vacancy rates for both OTs and OTAs? Which pathway does the community support?

Faculty: Does the program have qualified faculty to move to the doctoral degree? For master’s degree programs thinking about transitioning to the doctoral degree, are 50% of the core faculty educated with a “post-professional” doctoral degree (per Draft III revisions of the ACOTE standards)? Does the repertoire of faculty expertise include those with advanced knowledge and skills in areas such as health care policy, research, grant procurement, program development and management, - in additional to the practice areas of mental health, pediatrics, geriatrics, physical disability, orthopedics, neurology, etc.? Will you be able to hire additional faculty to serve as the capstone coordinator and / or AFWC-like person to oversee placements for the capstone / doctoral education component of the curriculum?

Research Infrastructure: Does your institution have the capacity for potential increases in IRB submissions? Do you have faculty experienced in mentoring qualitative, quantitative and mixed method studies? Do you have adequate resources for students to access software needed for research (e.g., SPSS, SAS, STRATA, NVivo, etc.)? Do you have a process to optimize student navigation through the IRB approval in a timely manner?

Experiential sites: Do you have community and regional capacity to secure capstone or doctoral education component sites? Do you have the faculty resources to oversee (collecting memorandum of understanding documentation and the qualifications of mentors, placing students in sites, collecting student evaluations, analyzing evaluations, assigning grades, etc.) the capstone of each experience?

Admissions: Does the program anticipate any changes in the qualifications if moving to the doctoral degree? Are there sufficient “pipelines” of students to apply to the program? Will scholarship dollars be allotted to support students in need of tuition coverage?

These are just a few of the major considerations. I think programs should be open to an honest assessment and not only consider the transition to the doctoral degree in OT, but they should also be open to consider the transition to the bachelor’s degree in OTA education.