Strong clinicians are built on strong foundations. In this webinar, discover how OTu helps students master essential clinical skills required in every practice setting. OTu has you covered with high-quality demonstration videos, case-based learning, interactive quizzes, and simulations for teaching infection control, assistive mobility device use, transfers, and more. Register today and learn how to create engaging learning experiences that reinforce fundamentals while building student confidence, competence, and readiness for fieldwork.

Featured Speaker: Sheila R. Krajnik, EdD, OTR/L 

Dr. Krajnik brings over 43 years of diverse clinical and academic expertise to the OTu Team, specializing in adult neurological practice and gerontology. With extensive experience across various settings, she has held administrative and clinical specialist positions, contributed to research and advocacy efforts, and excelled in educating future OT and OTA practitioners.

00:00 Introduction to the Teaching Foundational Skills: Terminology We Use

04:50 Sheila’s Teaching Journey: OTu is a Gamechanger

07:29 OTu Apps for Teaching Foundational Skills

09:41 Infection Control Plus (Acute Care App)

16:03 Mobility Aids Content Demo (Assistive Devices App)

20:16 Bed Mobility & Transfers Content Demo (Assistive Devices App)

27:03 e-Learning & Simulations for Fundamental Skills

31:42 Bookmark Feature to Keep Track of Many OTu Content Pages

32:51 Future Webinars; Sheila’s Contact Info & Closing Thoughts

Helpful Links: Complimentary Educator access | Educator resources | Set up a Demo

Mastering the Fundamentals: How OTu Transforms Clinical Skills Education

Teaching fundamental clinical skills has always been one of the most rewarding – and most demanding – aspects of occupational therapy education. There’s something special about watching students light up when they first don a gait belt or successfully complete a stand-pivot transfer. They’re not just learning a technique; they’re stepping into their professional identity.

But for faculty, the reality of teaching these essential skills can be overwhelming. The sheer volume of content to cover, the endless demonstrations required, the challenge of giving individualized feedback to every student – it’s a heavy lift. During a recent OTu faculty webinar, we explored how our platform addresses these challenges while enhancing the learning experience for students across diverse practice settings.

The Essential Skills Challenge

Whether you call them foundational skills, patient management skills, or professional clinical skills, these psychomotor competencies form the bedrock of occupational therapy practice. Infection control, vital signs, wheelchair management, transfers, gait patterns, bed mobility – the list goes on. While some settings may not require every single skill, the breadth of knowledge needed means every student must be thoroughly prepared.

The challenge isn’t just about teaching the “what” of these skills. Students need to understand the cognitive rationale behind each technique, then translate that knowledge into confident physical performance. That cognitive-to-motor translation takes time, repetition, and meaningful feedback – resources that are often stretched thin in academic settings.

A Teaching Extender, Not a Replacement

This is where OTu’s extensive video library becomes transformative. With over 6,000 instructional videos, including more than a thousand focused on fundamental clinical skills, the platform serves as what we call a “teaching extender.” Rather than replacing faculty expertise, it amplifies your reach and effectiveness.

Consider the traditional approach to teaching a partial stand-pivot transfer. You demonstrate the technique, students attempt it, you circulate to provide feedback, and inevitably you’re pulled back to demonstrate again for a group that missed a crucial detail. Meanwhile, the clock ticks forward and you haven’t even addressed transfers to both the strong and weak sides – a critical real-world consideration given the constraints of bathroom layouts and car transfers.

OTu changes this dynamic fundamentally. Students can watch detailed transfer demonstrations before class, observe both right and left variations, and arrive at lab already primed with the basic cognitive framework. This pre-class preparation transforms your lab time from initial instruction into focused skill refinement. As Sheila Krajnik, our OTu Education Lead, noted during the webinar, “Students could get a little bit of that excitement out… and then come into the labs to refine their skills, and be checked off on their skills.”

Designed for Diverse Learning Needs

One of OTu’s most practical features is its attention to the varied ways students process and retain information. Each video includes adjustable playback speed – a seemingly simple feature that makes a remarkable difference. When students are first encountering a complex sequence, slowing the video to half speed lets them parse each movement without the distraction of audio. As they gain proficiency, they can speed up their review, making efficient use of study time before practical assessments.

The platform also addresses the perceptual challenges many students face with laterality. Videos demonstrate skills with both right and left involvement, using visible colored tape to clearly mark the affected limb. For students who struggle with left-right orientation – and let’s be honest, many of us do – this visual differentiation is invaluable.

Beyond videos, OTu provides text-based instructions that complement the visual demonstrations. This multimodal approach honors different learning preferences while reinforcing key concepts through multiple channels.

Making the Most of Limited Lab Time

The auto-replay feature exemplifies how thoughtfully OTu is designed for the classroom environment. During lab sessions, faculty can project a video on the large screen, turn on auto-replay, and let it cycle continuously while circulating among student groups. Students can glance up to check their technique against the model, while you focus your energy where it matters most – providing individualized formative feedback.

Even programs that don’t require student subscriptions can leverage this functionality. Your free faculty account gives you access to the entire library, allowing you to curate and display content during class time. While student subscriptions unlock additional benefits like personal review and the ability to access content before fieldwork, a significant portion of OTu’s value can be realized through strategic classroom use alone.

Beyond Videos: Interactive Learning and Simulations

OTu’s e-learning simulations and “learning boosts” extend the platform’s utility beyond skill demonstration into knowledge reinforcement and assessment. These 15-minute interactive experiences use case-based questions with immediate feedback to help students consolidate their understanding of essential clinical concepts.

The flexibility of these tools is particularly valuable. Use them as pre-learning activities to generate curiosity before introducing new content – a proven strategy for priming the brain and increasing engagement. Alternatively, deploy them as post-learning checks to assess whether students have grasped key concepts from your didactic sessions and video assignments.

The Lines and Tubes microlearning module, for example, guides students through questions about pathogenic transmission, standard precautions, and equipment management. Each incorrect answer triggers explanatory feedback, creating a low-stakes learning opportunity rather than a purely evaluative experience. Similarly, the wheelchair mobility simulation reinforces the extensive content available in the Assistive Mobility Devices app, helping students integrate knowledge about components, management techniques, and safety considerations.

Organization Made Simple

Managing such an extensive library could be daunting, but OTu’s Bookmark feature provides an elegant solution. Faculty can create curated collections of videos and simulations organized by course, week, or skill category, then share these collections with students through a simple link. Whether you’re organizing content for a fundamentals course or preparing students for specific fieldwork settings, the bookmark feature ensures students can navigate directly to relevant content without getting overwhelmed by the platform’s breadth.

This organizational capability proves particularly valuable when students are preparing for fieldwork. A student heading to an acute care setting can review infection control protocols, hospital bed operation, and transfer techniques appropriate to that environment. Another student preparing for a school-based placement can focus on wheelchair management and adaptive equipment. The same comprehensive platform flexibly supports diverse learning paths.

Real-World Application Across Settings

While OTu’s Acute Care app might seem narrowly focused by name, its content extends far beyond hospital walls. Infection control, after all, is universal. Hand hygiene, PPE donning and doffing, and isolation precautions apply whether you’re working in a hospital, school, outpatient clinic, or home health setting. Similarly, the skills in the Assistive Mobility Devices app – gait patterns, wheelchair management, transfers – are foundational across virtually all OT practice areas.

This cross-setting applicability means your investment in teaching these skills, and in using OTu as a tool, pays dividends throughout students’ entire careers. The three-point gait pattern learned in the first semester translates directly to clinical practice with orthopedic clients in any setting. The wheelchair assessment skills apply equally to pediatric, adult, and geriatric populations.

Moving Forward

The fundamental clinical skills we teach our students represent more than just techniques to be mastered. They’re the foundation of professional competence and confidence. When students enter fieldwork already solid in these basics, they can focus their energy on clinical reasoning, therapeutic relationship building, and the nuanced application of their skills to real clients with complex needs.

OTu doesn’t replace the irreplaceable – your expertise, your feedback, your ability to read a room and adjust your teaching in the moment. What it does is multiply your effectiveness, giving you back time to focus on what matters most while ensuring students have access to high-quality demonstrations whenever and wherever they need them.

Whether your students have individual subscriptions or you’re using your faculty account to enhance lab instruction, OTu offers practical solutions to the very real challenges of clinical skills education. We invite you to explore the platform, experiment with different features, and discover how it might transform your teaching experience the way it has for so many of your colleagues.

Interested in learning more about maximizing OTu in your program? Request a free faculty account or schedule a one-on-one meeting with our Education Lead to explore specific features like the bookmark function, learning reports, and integration strategies for your curriculum.