Occupational therapy education: bridging theory and practice together in Portugal

Abstract

In Portugal, there are currently four occupational therapy schools. These are the Alcoitão School of Health, School of Allied Health Technologies of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, School of Health Sciences of Leiria and School of Health of Beja. Only Alcoitão School of Health has a WFOT approved educational programme but all of these schools are committed to and follow the general recommendations of the WFOT Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists. The importance of considering how to join theory with practice during the educational programme is valued, familiar and embraced for all of these schools. Knowing this, the Portuguese Association of Occupational Therapists approached the coordinators of each school, asking for how theory and practice are joined in each programme. Based on this information, we believe we can explain how we fuse teaching and practice in Portugal.