Occupational Therapy Stewardship

1. How do the principles of stewardship: generation, conservation & transformation apply to pursuing the OTD degree? A steward is one who is entrusted in the care of something important. In medieval times, the steward managed and cared for the household they worked for. In modern times, stewards in occupational therapy ensure that the past, present and future ideas and principles of occupational therapy are preserved and used for future knowledge. There are three parts of stewardship: generation, conservation and transformation. All three parts of stewardship relate to the achieving of an occupational therapy doctorate (OTD). Generation, very simply put, is about developing new information. This generation of information can be through an …show more content…
The gaining and analysis of knowledge is only useful if the knowledge is presented to others. Occupational therapy practioners have much to learn from experts in their field as well as related fields like physical therapy. OTD students are given a chance to engage in advanced clinical training and to learn from knowledgeable mentors. In return, this new knowledge can be taken back to clinics and shared with colleagues, or taken to academia and shared with other occupational therapy students. OTD students are also encouraged to engage in publishing their own research and findings and they use written communication as another way to get their knowledge to …show more content…
Clinical doctorates aim to prepare highly skilled professionals for a certain field, such as occupational therapy, who must meet certain requirements before they are able to sit for national or state board examination (2007). A research doctorate in comparison aims to increase knowledge and research in a certain discipline such as chemistry or physics and graduates typically do not take board examinations, but instead must show their understanding of the discipline through examination from the university and show how they have contributed to new knowledge in the discipline (2007). For fields with a clinical doctorate, the minimum requirements are set by a specialized accrediting agency, for example ACOTE accredits occupational therapy programs. Then each university can set how these requirements are met often offering varying courses as well as deciding if a thesis or dissertation is required. To contrast, research doctorates do not receive their own accreditation. Instead, accreditation is given to a university from a regional or national accrediting agency and covers all programs within the university (2007). The university also gets to set the requirements for graduation including courses required, level of examination and a