ADC is a first year PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University, studying the pedagogical benefits of using unmanned aerial vehicles in geoscience fieldwork education.
Feedback on clinical reasoning skills during fieldwork education is regarded as vital in occupational therapy students' professional development.
Physical fieldwork education is compulsory for all final year occupational therapy students at the university where the study was conducted.
The student participants regarded critical (corrective) feedback as a crucial component of fieldwork education and appreciated a balance between positive (confirmatory) and critical (corrective) feedback.
The results indicate that the supervisors included in this study were not fully equipped in all respects of their role in the fieldwork education of students.
At the university where the current study was conducted, it is standard procedure that final year occupational therapy students reflect, whether verbally or in writing, on their experiences of fieldwork education.
Learning should occur at a deeper level of reasoning during final year students' fieldwork education under the supervision of a registered occupational therapist (ENOTHE, 2004; Hills, Ryan, Smith & Warren-Forward, 2012).
One way to acquire clinical reasoning skills is by means of quality feedback from supervisors during fieldwork education (Koski et al., 2013; Rodger, Fitzgerald, Davila, Millar & Allison, 2011; Thomas & Arnold, 2011).
The main themes with associated sub-themes that emerged from the analysis, were used to establish the interpersonal communication factors in the supervisory relationship played a role in enhancing occupational therapy students' clinical reasoning during fieldwork education.
A study was therefore undertaken with the aim of determining which interpersonal communication factors in the supervisory relationship play a role in enhancing occupational therapy students' clinical reasoning during their physical fieldwork education.
