14 November 2005
Monash University will launch its four-year Bachelor of Occupational Therapy course at its Peninsula campus on Thursday, 17 November.
The new course, which will be delivered through the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, will include more than one thousand hours of fieldwork education, including specialist rural placements.
The course will have a strong focus on occupational therapy techniques as well as health promotion. It has been developed by Associate Professor Louise Farnworth, Ms Rebecca Allen, Dr Ted Brown, and Ms Pamela Kirke, with input from OT Australia's Victorian branch and local health service providers.
Sixty students will be enrolled in 2006, the first year of the program.
Associate Professor Farnworth, who heads the course, said it was the only one specifically addressing the educational needs of Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland residents who wanted to study occupational therapy.
"The course will incorporate Inter-Professional Learning as one of its hallmarks and links will be made with the Nursing, Paramedic studies, Physiotherapy and Health Science/Social Work programs at Monash Peninsula. Occupational therapy students will also join business students enrolled in the double Psychology/Business degree so they can learn business skills."
Dr Farnworth said this was a strategic step toward establishing greater commonality in the first-year curricula for health sciences courses at Monash's Peninsula campus. It would enable more effective use of teaching resources and encourage a more holistic approach to health science education that would assist in breaking down artificial barriers between the professions when graduates entered professional practice, she said.
Ms Marilyn Pattison, Honorary Secretary to the World Federation of Occupational Therapists and recipient of the Occupational Therapy Australia 2006 Sylvia Docker award, will speak at the launch.
For more information on the launch phone +61 3 9904 4466 or email healthsciences@med.monash.edu.au .
For information or to arrange interviews contact Ms Diane Squires in Media Communications on 9905 9315 or 0417 603 400.
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