Enhancing fieldwork readiness in occupational therapy students with generative AI

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
• Occupational Therapy Interventions

Background:

• Traditional occupational therapy (OT) education faces challenges in developing students' intervention planning skills.
• Students often struggle with generating diverse interventions, impacting time spent on clinical reasoning and patient care.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) offers potential to enhance creative ideation in intervention planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the utility of generative AI (ChatGPT v. 3.5) in assisting occupational therapy students with intervention planning.
• To assess the impact of AI integration on students' efficiency, creativity, and understanding of ethical considerations in intervention planning.
• To evaluate students' intent to utilize AI tools in future clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Occupational therapy students utilized ChatGPT v. 3.5 within a lecture and assignment framework.
• Students analyzed case studies, generated intervention ideas using AI, and selected appropriate interventions with rationales.
• Students conducted evidence-based searches and analyzed research influence on their intervention decisions.

Main Results:

• Generative AI demonstrated potential as a valuable tool for occupational therapy students.
• Students showed enhanced comfort with AI and a better understanding of ethical and safety standards.
• Qualitative feedback indicated AI improved efficiency and creativity, with a strong intent to use AI in clinical practice to reduce cognitive load.

Conclusions:

• Integrating generative AI into the occupational therapy curriculum can significantly enhance intervention planning.
• AI tools can improve students' clinical readiness by fostering efficiency and innovative thinking.
• The study supports the adoption of AI in health professions education to augment traditional teaching methods.