Therapy Services

Sheffield Hallam University has been delivering occupational therapy education for 25 years. 

Our teaching and research staff are qualified occupational therapists with a wealth of experience in both the clinical and academic environment. Many of the teaching team hold doctorates, have undertaken or are presently engaged in research, and have been widely published and have both a national and international profile.

We have developed our expertise in delivering 'distance learning' especially in vocational rehabilitation and our students enjoy the opportunity to engage with their studies at a time which suits them as well as being able to engage with people studying from  a wide range of professional backgrounds.  We have been delivering vocational rehabilitation education at postgraduate level for over ten years and offer the only completely online learning vocational rehabilitation postgraduate course in the UK.

Our team of practitioners includes Jain Holmes, occupational therapist specialising in work; Sally Bramley, consultant occupational therapist in vocational rehabilitation and Dr Kate Heward, COT Merit Award winner. This expert knowledge has given students an awareness of what is current in the practice of vocational rehabilitation, allowing them to apply this to their own area of work. Since moving to online delivery we have been able to reach greater student numbers resulting in a range of professions globally enhacing the student learning experience.

We have recently been engaged in two exciting areas of development; one around consultancy and training relating to fit for work programmes, and secondly we have been leading in partnership with our local NHS Trusts packages of training related to generic assessor roles and transformation of care. This consultancy and training continues to evolve as Trusts work towards meeting the Five Year Forward View new models of care.

Postgraduate physiotherapy education has been delivered at Sheffield Hallam University for over 20 years.  We understand the pressures of working and studying concurrently and recognise the need for flexible provision that meets individual student and workforce needs. Our distance learning modules are designed to be accessible to students where ever and whenever they can study.

Our postgraduate physiotherapy provision was developed by both a university based and a clinically based team. It recognises the need to develop therapists with skills that can be transferred across clinical settings but it also provides a selection of modules and focussed learning opportunities allowing students to gain specialist skills as required. Our modules focus on the use of best evidence in practice but also recognise the need to develop skills beyond deciding on intervention choice. This is achieved by including teaching on building of the therapeutic relationship and influencing behavioural change to assist patients in implementing self- management strategies to maximise treatment effectiveness. Students accessing our postgraduate provision are also encouraged to constantly be aware of service development and improvement opportunities.

The physiotherapy teaching team are experienced in delivering interesting, interactive distance learning materials. We use patient and tutor video followed by in depth online discussion to help students reflect on use of practical skills and advanced thought processes in their practice. We use the distance learning environment to foster networks between students with different healthcare backgrounds. We achieve this by encouraging discussion between staff and students where they share clinical experiences and discuss theoretical foundations for their practice. Our students tell us this helps them to broaden their ideas and constantly challenge and improve their clinical practice.

Research and Personal Development

The London CPPD contract offers a range of modules designed to improve research and personal skills.

These include the non-credit-bearing eMIT motivational interviewing online training and self assessment tool.  eMIT is a low-cost, high-value online training tool that supports the learning of practitioners in motivational interviewing (MI). It is designed to increase competency and to sustain skills in applied settings.  You have access to the learning materials and self-assessment tools for a 12 month period, though most people complete the module in around 10 hours.

We also offer a full masters dissertation module, attracting either 45 or 60 Level 7 credits.  You will be allocated a named academic supervisor who will work with you to identify a suitable topic, develop your research proposal and undertake your research.  This module is a unique opportunity to complete an in-depth piece of evaluative research in relation to an area of your work.  As such it presents a great opportunity to do something very beneficial to your organisation, yourself and therefore your patients and service users.

There are also a range of personalised and work-based learning modules available.  These include the personalised study module, which allows you to plan and carry out a chosen study into an area of personal or professional development. Each personalised study module is unique given that a key feature of this learning package is that the aims, learning objectives and content are negotiated by students with the module leader and articulated on the personalised study proposal form.  Our work based learning for service development moduleis specifically designed to enable you to contribute to service improvement by identifying an appropriate service related issue and exploring means of improving that service. It's about making links between your learning needs and the strategic needs of the organisation and finding ways to apply the learning in work.