Reviewer: Yvonne Randall, EdD, MHA, OTR/L(Private Practice)
Description: This book provides excellent information about the process of completing the entry-level occupational therapy doctorate capstone. It is critical that the capstone component is well integrated into the overall program objectives and students have the tools to help them succeed. This is an excellent resource that provides concrete steps to guide the process.
Purpose: The purpose is to guide the occupational therapy doctoral student and their team (capstone chair, site mentor, and doctoral capstone coordinator) through the entire capstone process: development, planning, implementation, sustainability, and dissemination. This book helps faculty and site mentors provide the required in-depth mentored experience and provides guideposts for students to drive their learning process. While the entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree has been offered for over 20 years, each program typically created their own handbook to guide students in their process. This is the first book to systematically guide students and their mentors through the capstone for the profession.
Audience: The audience is specifically occupational therapy students required to complete the doctoral capstone process. The information in this book will benefit seasoned academics as it provides step-by-step processes for students engaged in their capstone experience and disseminating information to a larger audience.
Features: Each chapter begins with concepts focused on human-centered design mindsets for the doctoral student. These topics include optimism, empathy, embracing ambiguity, learning from failure, and creative confidence. Following an introduction, each chapter has reflective questions and objectives to frame its contents. Chapters end with learning activities and references. Robust appendixes assist students and members of the capstone team through every step of the journey. The book is organized into four specific parts. The first part, Inspiration Phase, distinguishes fieldwork from capstone and structures the capstone to meet accreditation focus areas (clinical practice skills, research, administration, leadership, program development, policy development, advocacy, education, theory development). The process of how to develop a focused question, begin the literature search, analyze for gaps, and determine a problem statement are highlighted. This part also discusses establishing capstone site relationships and examples of site mentors. The second part addresses planning, which is critical for success. Doctoral students must develop practice-ready skills through this process. In the profession of occupational therapy, this includes leadership, advocacy, confidence, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and self-direction. All these concepts are addressed including how to develop individualized goals and objectives for the capstone experience. This part describes the process of locating a capstone site, developing the memorandum of understanding, supervision requirements, and a plan for mentorship and explains proposal planning and project timelines. Part 3, Implementation, describes the project management phase of the capstone experience, which includes evaluation of the site (needs assessment, impact, outcomes) and a sustainability plan. Student and site evaluations occur in the implementation phase. The authors provide guidance for the capstone team members including examples of evaluation forms. The final part, Dissemination, provides suggestions to guide scholarly writing and examples of scholarly products. The chapters on the final capstone report to ensure compliance with accreditation standards are clearly presented. Scholarly deliverables are discussed to cover submission of papers and presentations and how to link to the American Occupational Therapy Association Vision 2025.
Assessment: This is the only book available to guide the occupational therapy doctorate capstone process. Individual universities have created their own handbooks, and this book is long overdue. With over 100 academic programs in the application or development stage for the entry occupational therapy doctoral degree, this book is timely. It will soon be the go-to book for the capstone process.
