Post Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate (PPOTD)

Utica University’s post-professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) offers practicing licensed occupational therapists the post-professional degree they need to advance their careers. The program is offered in a hybrid manner with courses offered in both online and on-ground format. Electives are provided either on-ground or online. Students may study either full-time or part-time. 

Explicitly designed for licensed occupational therapy professionals, students select course options allowing them to plan their program of study to focus on individual career goals. Courses for clarity are centered on the view of an occupational therapist as a change agent, requiring knowledge and skills in various roles. Graduates complete advanced practice, education, advocacy, theory development, and leadership courses. An evidence-based occupational therapy (EBOT) capstone project provides an opportunity to demonstrate the achievement of program goals. 

Capstone projects are published through ProQuest electronic thesis dissertation (ETD), the electronic full-text database. The ProQuest database is searchable through most academic and research libraries. Students retain copyright to the material. Further details are available on the Office of Graduate Studies website at https://www.utica.edu/ogs/etdsubmit.cfm

Admission

Students admitted into the PPOTD program must: (a) hold a current unencumbered license in occupational therapy, (b) either be currently employed in, or have 2 years of experience in, Occupational Therapy, (c) have a masters’ degree with a GPA of 3.0 or above, (d) have earned at least 42 credit hours of graduate level work (e) provide professional two professional letters of recommendation from former faculty, employers or former employers, colleagues, and (f) submit with their admission application a copy of their master’s thesis/capstone project or a portfolio including 3 substantive written documents.

Retention

Program Goals

Successful graduates from this program will become change agents demonstrating the knowledge and skills to competently perform as:

• Advanced Evidence-based Practice Occupational Therapists. Graduates will analyze and evaluate best practices, synthesizing information from a variety of sources in order to apply those practices to persons, groups, and population in multiple contexts and across systems.
• Educators. Graduates will analyze and evaluate educational theory, applying that understanding, as well as instructional design, to the creation of educational experiences.
• Advocates. Graduates will apply an understanding of systems analysis to identify when such systems either impede or facilitate occupational justice and health equity. Students will select and appraise strategies for their ability to advocate for systems change.
• Theory Developers. Graduates will apply the process of theory development to an identified area that would benefit from an alternative perspective or model of practice to ensure occupational justice for individuals, populations and communities.
• Leaders. Graduates will analyze and evaluate current models of leadership in order to adopt a model appropriate to a specific context, enabling them as leaders to enact beneficial changes.