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Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate, Online

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Marie-Christine Potvin, PhD, OTR/L
  • Program Director, Post-Professional OTD Program
  • Professor
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Dr. Robert & Dorothy Rector Clinical Skills & Simulation Center
Occupational Therapy Alumni

Why Jefferson?

100% Online

  • Primarily asynchronous learning with strategic synchronous sessions​
  • Three semesters per year
  • Community between students build within and across courses​
  • Courses design embeds evidence-based teaching-learning theory and science​
  • Aligning with national standard, a 3-credit course corresponds, on average, to 9 hours of work per week
  • Access to all Jefferson educational support services (e.g., Support through the academic writing center, vast selection of e-books, research literature databases, and free access to research-related software)

Customized Plan of Study

  • Multiple opportunities to apply knowledge and skills to students' areas of practice and to combine students' professional interests
  • Part-time and full-time program completion options
  • Customizable plan of study with advanced practice certificates related to student's interests and goals 
  • Individualized mentored experience
  • Variety of types of doctoral project that matches students' goals and interests as well as the current evidence-based

High-touch Mentored Experience

  • Well-designed, focused, and mutually beneficial mentor-mentee relationships
  • Provide specialized knowledge and skills and valuable advice in sync with students’ career goals
  • Collaboration for building students’ professional networks 

Skilled, Experienced, & Accomplished Faculty

  • Faculty members with a variety of clinical experience and scholarship in different areas of practice
  • Knowledgeable, kind, cooperative, and open-minded
  • Passionate about teaching and learning to enhance students’ experience 
  • Committed to Jefferson’s mission of improving lives through academic programs of excellence, exceptional clinical practice and community engagement, transformative research and inquiry, and far-reaching philanthropy

Dual-Degree: Earn an Advanced Practice Certificate

Students have the option to specialize in a practice area through their electives while completing the PPOTD Program. Specialty areas available to students include:

Prepare Students for What's Next

The PP-OTD program prepares students for what comes next in their professional journey. This may be,

  • A transition to academia 
  • Taking on leadership role (e.g., developing new programs or areas of practice, leading within an organization)
  • Gaining advanced clinical knowledge and skills 

Impactful Capstone Projects

Students in the program design doctoral projects anchored in the current research, meet their professional interests and goals, and aim to have an important impact in their professional setting, the profession at large, and beyond. Project types vary as illustrated by the examples listed below.​

Scoping Review​  

Example: Shaw, A., Cabrejo, P. T., Adamczyk, A., & Mulcahey, M. J. (2022). Reducing hospital readmissions of older adults pursuing postacute care at skilled nursing facilities: A scoping review. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(1).​

Knowledge Translation​ ​

Example: Daly, M. M., & DeAngelis, T. M. (2017). Teaching evidence-based practice across curricula—an overview of a professional development course for occupational therapy educators. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 31(1), 102-109.​

Qualitative Study​​

Example: Blakely, T., Potvin, M. C., & Iwama, M. (2021). The Kawa Model’s Value for Level II Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Students. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 5(4), 14.​

Program Development​​

Example: Olivier, E., & Potvin, M. C. (2021). Faculty development: reaching every college student with universal design for learning. Journal of Formative Design in Learning, 5(2), 106-115.​

Measurement Tool Development​​

Example: Petersen, J., Mailloux, Z., Schaaf, R. C., & Leao, M. (2021). Validity of the Vestibular and Proprioceptive Tests of the Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration (EASI). The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 75(Supplement_2), 7512500051p1-7512500051p1.​

Quality Improvement ​

Example: Bozec, E., Gorska, J., & Grampurohit, N. (2021). Upper Extremity Task-Specific Training: Manual Development and Implementation Research within Inpatient Rehabilitation. Occupational Therapy In Health Care, 35(3), 336-354.​

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