As educators, we have often heard students make the following comments, “I’m just surviving,” “I don’t know how I am going to make it through this week/semester, etc.” “I am barely keeping my head above water.” As faculty in three different professional programs; therapeutic recreation (RT), occupational therapy (OT), and clinical laboratory science (CLS, we have a vested interest in knowing if students are thriving in our programs or if they are just surviving. Preliminary findings of this study will be discussed along with how they can be used to improve our programs to further support students’ thriving. Participants will identify strategies and changes to implement that can contribute to students' thriving in a professional program. Developing resilient practitioners through the concept of thriving will also be explored.
Upon completion of the module, participants will be able to:
1. Describe “thriving” vs. “surviving” in the context of three professional programs
2. Identify factors in your program that support students “thriving”
3. Develop new strategies/tools to increase student “thriving”