SRS Impact Report 2019-2020

There were several innovations over the last two years, including the new undergraduate course offerings and the creative bootcamp model to help ensure that our students continue to learn clinical skills during the pandemic. Despite the challenges, the scholarly productivity of our faculty has been outstanding, as demonstrated through research funding, publications, and prestigious awards.

During this time of change, we have been able to depend on the continued partnerships and support of our community. Whether through research, education, clinical practice or serving on committees, our community partners are a constant, which contributes to the excellence of the School in many ways.

I invite you to read further about the changes and innovations in the School of Rehabilitation Science over the past two years. Enjoy!

Our learning environment moved from in-person to online, and while we have eventually been able to safely offer in-person learning when required, these changes have made us re-examine our approach to teaching, necessarily in the short term, but ultimately as a whole, beyond pandemic conditions.

Several faculty participated in a professional development course to support and sustain the move to online learning, and we have begun planning important changes to our program’s second year to enable more breadth and depth of experience in the areas of research, leadership, innovations, social justice, and specific practice areas.

During this time, we have reconsidered how we offer our program and are developing strategies to bring about positive change. In August 2020, MSc(OT) Program faculty and students from both years started the OT Anti-Racism, Anti Bias and Anti Oppression Working Group to consider curriculum issues related to racism, bias, and oppression, and to work on solutions with faculty leaders. In March 2020, we conducted our first completely virtual admissions process, which reduces barriers for many applicants to participate in interviews (e.g., travel time and costs). We have seen a 20% increase in applications for 2021 which could partially be attributed to this new approach.

While it has been a challenging time, we have used the experience to move the program forward in important directions.

Similarly, we partnered with the St. Joseph’s Care Group in Thunder Bay to facilitate a role emerging, interprofessional part-time OT-SLP clinical placement at the Anishnawbe Mushkiki Community Health and Wellness Centre.

In clinical education, we continued to foster students’ development as scholarly practitioners by supporting thirteen integrated learning experiences that combined clinical learning and evidence-based research over an eight-week placement block. We also facilitated 52 placements that enabled students to be change agents and advocate for occupational therapy’s role and benefits in settings where an established occupational therapy role does not exist. Over the last two years, clinical education launched four new community partnerships for role emerging student placements within the city of Hamilton – Mental Health and Street Outreach Program, the City of Hamilton Child and Adolescent Services, St. Matthew’s House, and Student Accessibility Services at McMaster University.

Finally, clinical education has worked closely with our clinical partners to diversify and create unique clinical placements for our students. The year 2020 was no exception despite a global pandemic. In July 2020, we embarked on a new frontier of clinical learning, engaging more than 60% of our graduating OT class in virtual clinical placements. In partnership with the McMaster SLP program, we produced the “McMaster OT and SLP For Students By Students Guide to Virtual Placements,” which has become a valuable resource for both students and preceptors. Additionally, two OT students, who completed a role emerging placement at St. Matthew’s House, created a “Coping with COVID-19 Group Program Manual” based on the Do-Live-Well framework. Our OT students have been resilient and continue to demonstrate the exceptional skills of leadership, innovation, and client-centered practice. The MSc(OT) program will continue to forge ahead, providing outstanding clinical learning opportunities for our future OT colleagues and strengthening our partnerships within our McMaster clinical community.

Thanks to the generous donation by Jean Crowe, a former School of Rehabilitation Science (SRS) faculty member, the PT Program upgraded the teaching technology in one of our main clinical laboratory spaces, which has been essential to supporting student learning during the pandemic. Behind the scenes, preparations toward the next program accreditation review are ongoing, and our staff and faculty continue to find ways to innovate and adapt to meet the changing needs of this time.

The clinical education team has worked to create new partnerships and nurture existing ones so that both students and clinical instructors (CI) feel supported.

From 2019 to present, PT students have had the opportunity to participate in phenomenal clinical placement experiences that include working with indigenous populations, at international sites and within emerging roles.

In March 2020 with the announcement of the global pandemic, the program and associated clinical partners were presented with unforeseeable circumstances that required flexibility, adaptability, resilience, and tenacity. Although restrictions led to the deferral of two full placement periods, the innovation and dedication from the clinical community have allowed students to participate in meaningful placement experiences and meet graduation requirements in a timely manner.

The pandemic became a catalyst to dive into clinical education strategic initiatives already on the radar: offering virtual/tele-rehab placements, development of project- and leadership-based role emerging placements and using online educational platforms. It also provided opportunities to explore the role that simulation could play within PT clinical education. The Acting Director of Clinical Education (DCE) participated in a working group to develop a national proposal for the use of simulation in clinical education that is now moving to the national pilot exploration phase.

Despite the challenges, the PT Clinical Education Team developed partnerships with more than 10 new clinical sites and engaged over 15 new clinical instructors (CIs) since March of 2020. The current climate has also allowed the exploration of innovative placement opportunities that include unique and non-traditional models. In one such model, a final year PT student worked with an Occupational Therapist supervisor to develop an outpatient cardiac rehab program; the other utilized a ‘float’ supervision model, whereby a final year PT student was supervised by multiple CIs across multiple hospital units. A manuscript is currently under development as a case report for the latter model, with the intent to submit for publication.

The admissions process and all other facets of program operations are managed with excellence by our administrative staff, who were recognized with a 2018 McMaster President’s Award for Outstanding Service.

In November 2019 we graduated the first cohort of students, and our fourth cohort started the program fully online in September 2020. We have received outstanding feedback from community instructors on students’ clinical performance during the program, due in large part to our Director of Clinical Education. Our graduates are now advancing the field as registered SLPs in settings across Canada, from early child language programs to programs that support communication for adults with dementia.

Our five faculty members include Assistant, Associate and Full Professors. All have active grant-funded research and share a passion for teaching in the professional program and training the next generation of clinician scholars. All of us have contributed to the COVID response: our students and graduates are frontline clinicians, and our faculty have had leadership roles in developing and disseminating safe practice guidelines for rehabilitation during the pandemic and understanding the effects of COVID on communication and swallowing.

We are fortunate to be in the collaborative and inspiring environment of the School of Rehabilitation Science and look forward to our continued impact on the field, locally, nationally, and internationally.

MSc(SLP) has therefore partnered with St. Lawrence College and Hotel Dieu Shaver Hospital to implement a joint SLP-CDA placement. Similarly, with McMaster’s strong emphasis on Interprofessional Education, the OT and SLP programs partnered with Hotel Dieu Shaver Hospital to implement a combined OT-SLP placement in the Augmentative and Alternative Communication clinic. Both paired placements had tremendous results and all stakeholders are excited to continue evolving these models. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to engage students in virtual assessment and intervention. Our students brought a wealth of enthusiasm and skill to placement supervisors, most of whom had never worked virtually before. Supervisors and their clients delivered high praise about this experience, paving the way for ongoing virtual placements. Together with the OT program, we produced the “McMaster OT and SLP For Students By Students Guide to Virtual Placements”, which has become a go-to resource for our virtual placement supervisors. The MSc(SLP) program looks forward to continuing innovation in the coming years!

A main finding of the review is the high satisfaction of RS students regarding their learning experience, including the solid program infrastructure that serves to support and maintain strong supervisory relationships in the thesis programs, as well pedagogical support for online teaching in the course-based Master’s program.

Dual Degree Students In 2017, the RS program introduced a dual degree program, allowing students to obtain a professional degree and a PhD over 5 years. The aim of the Dual Degree program is to train clinician scientists to play an important role in the treatment of health problems by linking research and evidence with new and innovative clinical approaches. Currently, there are six PT/PhD and three OT/PhD students, with plans for an SLP option.

Teaching is conducted primarily online which made it easier for us to pivot to a totally online environment as a result of the pandemic. Usually, two short, intensive onsite residency periods provide students with networking opportunities, including presentations from local health executives. We adapted our residencies to be online during the pandemic and students responded enthusiastically.

To meet the increasing demand for the Program, an inaugural class of 17 full-time students started in Fall 2018. A diverse student body provides a highly interprofessional experience, with over 17 professions represented in a recent cohort of students, who are located across the country and internationally.

Since our first graduating class was in 2013, we now have a significant number of alumni, some of whom are participating in the program and we have welcomed several alumni as online instructors. Our experiential learning course has resulted in further opportunity for partnerships with our alumni who supervise the learning experience. Students contribute to the development and implementation of a project within a healthcare organization while being exposed to authentic demands that enable them to apply the knowledge and skills learned in earlier MHM courses and further develop their leadership and management skills. Students and supervisors speak highly of the “win-win” of the experiential learning course.

In June 2019, we hosted the first Alumni Networking Event, where we heard career updates from two successful MHM alumni, Caroline Gill (Class of 2013) and Raymond Kao (Class of 2016). Kate Dewhirst, LLB, took legal theory and made it understandable, accessible, and fun in her presentation, “What’s New in Health Law”. This interactive session enabled participants to ask Kate questions surrounding privacy, risk management, and legal compliance.

The accomplishments of our alumni speak for themselves – 64% of graduates report that they received a promotion during or within 1 year of completing the MHM degree.

Students explore the common and underlying tenets drawn from across different rehabilitation disciplines, namely physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech language pathology. They also hear directly from patients/clients and families to further understand the impact rehabilitation can have on health and quality of life. In its first two offerings, over 190 undergraduates from McMaster completed this course, which was translated to an online format for 100 students in Fall 2020 term. The School has recently developed a cross-faculty undergraduate certificate in Rehabilitation Science, which provides a unique academic credential designed for post-graduate and employment opportunities in health, medicine, and rehabilitation as well as the social sector and beyond. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop more undergraduate offerings with a focus on Rehabilitation Science @McMasterU.

The Summer of 2020 was characterized by events which highlighted the significant inequities experienced by marginalized groups worldwide. In response to these events, the Student Council was involved in the formation of the Anti-Racism, Anti-Bias, and Anti-Oppression (ARABAO) committee, which serves as a key consultation point for all equity, diversity, and human rights initiatives at the School of Rehabilitation Sciences. As part of the commitment to addressing social injustices, the Student Council made a unanimous decision to donate the Class of 2020 legacy gift to key causes that support the BIPOC community such as Black Lives Matter.

In light of the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the OT/PT/SLP Executive Council has continued to demonstrate leadership and perseverance in the face of uncertainty. The Executive Council made social connection a priority during these difficult times where many students feel isolated and disconnected from one another. The OT/PT/SLP Class of 2022 had one of the most unique orientation weeks yet, with ice breaker events, meet and greets, and all information events being hosted virtually. Since then, Student Council members have organized a variety of online events including yoga classes, trivia, and games nights. Additionally, the Student Council is currently organizing subsidized professional development courses for students to participate in virtually in 2021. Finally, cohorts can now connect with each other on social media thanks to the creation of a new council role, the Social Media Representative.