Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate, Online
At a Glance
Leadership
- Program Director, Post-Professional OTD Program
- Professor
Curriculum Overview
The curriculum for a Post-Professional Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (PP-OTD) combines required and elective courses to ensure that students have a similar foundation for success while specializing in an area of their choosing. The required courses prepare students to develop programs, become leaders, explore entrepreneurship, provide evidence-informed care, and take on faculty roles. A strand within the required courses enables students with their chosen faculty mentor to develop, refine, and implement their substantive doctoral project. The doctoral project-related courses are taken sequentially. Students choose electives that match their interests and goals from a menu of options at Jefferson, within the PP-OTD program and the Advanced Practice Certificates. These include topics such as autism, coaching, cultural humility, leadership, neuroscience, and teaching adults. The program can be completed on a part-time (1-3 credits per semester) or full-time (4-6 credits per semester) basis, which affects the length of completion of the program. Students may change from full-time to part-time status and vice versa at any time. The program must be completed within seven years from initial enrollment. All classes can be completed entirely online.
Program Length & Requirements
Length: Minimum of 40 months full-time
Requirements: Students who have earned a bachelor's in occupational therapy and who have not earned a master's degree enroll in the Earned BS in OT to PP-OTD, which requires a minimum of 43 credits. Twelve of these 43 credits are electives. Students can apply their completed Advanced Practice Certificate credits (up to 12 credits) to the PPOTD program as electives.
Earned BS to PP-OTD Curriculum
| University of North Carolina Evidence-Based Practice Tutorial (each semester) | 0 | |
| OT603 | Research Methods and Mentorship | 4 |
| OT680 | Leading Edge Occupational Therapy Practice | 3 |
| OT681 | Advanced Occupational Therapy Practicum * |
6 |
Note: Once a student has completed these 13 credits, they continue their degree through the Earned Master's Degree to PP-OTD curriculum.
Length: Minimum of 30 months full-time
Requirements: Students who have earned a Master's degree in occupational therapy OR a bachelor's degree in occupational therapy and a master's degree in another field enroll in the Earned Master to PP-OTD, which requires a minimum of 30 credits. Twelve of these 30 credits are electives. Students can apply their completed Advanced Practice Certificate credits (up to 12 credits) to the PP-OTD program as electives.
Required Courses: Core Courses
| OT778 | Advanced Evidence-Based Practice | 3 |
| OT782 | Leadership: Moving Beyond Traditional Roles | 3 |
| OT727 or OT770 | Visionary Practice Development and Evaluation or Knowledge Translation to Promote Best Practice | 3 |
| OT798 | Foundations for Post-Professional Doctoral Work | 1 |
| Total Core Credits | 10 |
Required Courses: Doctoral Project Course Sequence
| OT779A | Exploratory Seminar in Clinical Research | 3 |
| OT809 | Planning the Doctoral Project | 3 |
| OT810 | Post Professional Doctoral Capstone | 5 |
| Total Core Credits | 11 |
Elective Courses
Select four elective courses for a total of 12 credits from the menu of offerings. If the four courses are within the same advanced degree certificate, the student will earn an Advanced Practice Certificate in addition to their PP-OTD.