Certified hand therapists (CHTs) describe it as challenging for students to compete fieldwork in a hand therapy setting due to the complex caseload and the lack of student knowledge and experience. There are 5,861 CHTs within the United States, and occupational therapists (OTs) account for 85% of these CHTs. The fieldwork curriculum is critical in developing OTs that desire to be CHTs in the future. Two suggested solutions create a guide to direct the students to essential information and request that students complete an additional Fieldwork III in hand therapy after Fieldwork I and II. The Accreditation of Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) outlines the graduate-entry master’s occupational therapy (GEM OT) standards for Fieldwork I and II as cultivating generalist skills in occupational therapy. Higher-level education institutions offer entry-level occupational therapy doctorate programs (OTD). ACOTE describes the entry-level OTD standards include the doctoral capstone experience, which can assist them in pursuing in-depth clinical practice skills. An example of a doctoral capstone experience would be a dotoral experience to gain hand therapy skills. These students can choose to complete a doctorate capstone experience after completing all coursework and the Level I and II Fieldwork. This capstone will develop an evidence-based guide to support the emerging entry-level OTD students to gain proficient skills in hand therapy during a 14-week doctoral experience.
