Applied Research During Fieldwork: Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Universities and Clinics

This article describes the concept of incorporating occupational therapy research during fieldwork. Three models are presented that use applied research within a framework of collaboration between community clinicians and occupational therapy education programs. These models include an established honors baccalaureate program in Canada (Model 1) and suggested modifications of this model both for an undergraduate program (Model 2) and for a combined entry-level postbaccalaureate occupational therapy certificate/interdisciplinary graduate program (Model 3) in the United States. Occupational therapy clinicians and academic educators who work in areas where collaborative research relationships between universities and community clinics are not already established are encouraged to consider adopting or modifying one of the models described in this article.