Abstracts
Abstract
Like all college students, therapy assistant students may face challenges in daily living skills, such as money management, time management, and healthy meal preparation, which may negatively impact their academic and practicum success. Therapy assistant students face the added challenge of working on life skills with clients, and, as a result, students’ own life skills may affect their success in clinical encounters. Few life skills training programs exist for post-secondary students, and we were unable to find any for therapy assistant students.
This study is the third phase of a larger research project that developed, implemented, and evaluated life skills training modules for therapy assistant students. Life skills training modules were offered online to therapy assistant students at a Canadian college to explore whether life skills training increased students’ knowledge, self-rated competence in occupations, and self-efficacy related to personal life skills. Findings revealed that students’ knowledge quiz scores significantly improved, and students rated the modules positively in respect to learning and satisfaction. No significant change was detected in students’ Occupational Self Assessment (OSA) scores. Online life skills training modules may be beneficial for therapy assistant students to increase their knowledge about life skills and meet identified needs.
Keywords:
- college student life skills,
- life skills training,
- therapy assistant education,
- independent living skills,
- online learning modules
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Candi Raudebaugh, DSc (RHL), [Candi.raudebaugh@rdpolytech.ca], is an occupational therapist working as an instructor in the Occupational and Physical Therapist Assistant Program at Red Deer Polytechnic. Her doctoral research focused on life skills training for therapy assistant students.
Marcia Finlayson, PhD, [marcia.finlayson@queensu.ca], is a professor at Queen’s University. She is an occupational therapist by profession and a researcher focused on generating evidence to strengthen the provision of rehabilitation services for people with multiple sclerosis.
Kathleen Norman, PhD, [kathleen.norman@queensu.ca], is a professor at Queen’s University. She is a physical therapist by profession and her research has focused on various rehabilitation-related themes, including neurological rehabilitation and health professions education.
Sally Stewart, PhD, [sally.willis-stewart@ubc.ca], is an associate professor of teaching at UBC Okanagan with a 37-year teaching career in higher education, focusing on nutrition, exercise, and health promotion. Recent educational leadership research has focused on student well-being and health professions curriculum development.
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