he occupational therapy (OT) program was last accredited during the 2003-2004 academic year and can be accredited for five, seven or ten years. The College’s once seven-year term was increased to ten years. Recently, the program has been reviewed and received another seven-year term at this time. Elizabethtown College’s occupational therapy program has been accredited since 1974 by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE).
The reaccreditation process has two major areas, a self-study and a site visit. While the self-study generally takes about a year to complete, programs are advised to begin it no more than 18 months prior to the site visit. Faculty worked on the self-study during the 2012-2013 academic year and the study was submitted in June 2013.
The study was then reviewed by four occupational therapists. Of the four, two came to campus in September to conduct a three-day site visit. During the visit, department documents such as advising files, fieldwork files, course notebooks, admissions materials and program assessment documents and reports were reviewed. The evaluators also toured the campus, as well as the program facilities, to review resources and meet with OT faculty, current students, recent alumni, employers of Etown OT major graduates and clinical educators.
There was also time for the evaluators to meet with both President Dr. Carl J. Strikwerda and Dean of Faculty Dr. E. Fletcher McClellan. The Report of the On-site Evaluation (ROSE) was then presented to the OT faculty, McClellan and the provost.
Fifth-year OT major Megan Steber took part in a student interview with the ACOTE representatives. Other members of this interview included OT graduate students, recent OT alumni and the ACOTE representatives visiting the College. Overall, there were 15-17 students that attended the meeting as well as three alumni who joined in via conference call. “This was an hour-long meeting and the ACOTE representatives asked us questions about the OT program here at Etown, why we chose to attend Etown in general and how we live by the College’s motto to ‘Educate for Service.’ The ACOTE representatives were down-to-earth and were eager to hear our thoughts and comments by holding this open discussion and focus group,” Steber said.
The ROSE was submitted to the accreditation council who made the final determination for the College in December. “There are 188 standards that a program must meet. The standards are evaluated and updated every five years, most recently in 2011. The standards cover everything from the type of institution that houses the program to admissions processes and to the qualifications of the faculty to the curriculum,” Chair and Program Director of Occupational Therapy Department Judy Beck Ericksen said. “For standards such as this, the program must demonstrate that every part of the standard is met in order to be found in compliance.”
The College’s OT program was compliant with 187 of the 188 standards. The curriculum was not up to standards, but have been corrected since the review. “The standard is a new one and we interpreted it differently than ACOTE intended. We were not able to show sufficient evidence that we were meeting a part of it, so the standard was documented as an area of noncompliance. The accreditation council will review the report at their next meeting in April. Hopefully they will find us in compliance with this final standard. If they do, it is possible they will extend our time period from seven to ten years. In their correspondence, they indicated we were eligible for this extension,” Ericksen said.
Overall, the OT program was pleased with their review and site-visit and the program did well in the reaccreditation. Steber said, “This was a long and tedious process, but the ACOTE representatives gave us nothing but praise for our way of organizing our files and for the fieldwork program in general, which was so rewarding.”
