Emily S. Pugh
Department of Occupational Therapy
Distance Learning Master’s Program, Trends and Issues
in Health Care Course
A goal of the Occupational Therapy department is to expand the Distance Learning Master’s Program beyond enrolling the occasional international student and develop it into one that serves domestic and foreign therapists of varying backgrounds and perspectives, graduating occupational therapy leaders and clinicians of excellence who embrace a worldview. OTH6720 Trends and Issues in Health Care, the first course identified for internationalization, is currently comprised of multiple units, many of which are presented by national experts. It addresses issues relevant to the advanced clinician, e.g., public policy, the economics of American health care, diversity, social and behavioral contexts, classification systems, and measuring program outcomes. The course content will be revised to include issues involved in the delivery of health care internationally and their impact upon the provision of occupational therapy services.
The department will partner with colleagues from a Brazilian university to internationalize the Trends and Issues course and provide the Distance Learning Master’s program to therapists in their country. One of their faculty will assist with developing a multi-week unit and serve as an expert presenter, offering the health care system of Brazil as an alternative model of service delivery. Students will research health care systems of other countries and report on how various delivery models impact the provision of occupational therapy and related services. The revised course will bring new educational and interpersonal dimensions to the graduate students in the online program and those on campus who select it as an elective.