One issue facing occupational therapy education programs is recruiting and retaining potential faculty. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) advises educational programs to “…develop a plan and strategies on how to recruit, develop, mentor and retain OT educators”. Literature shows faculty fellowship to be an effective strategy to improve proteges’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching and helps build proteges’ credibility to others. Formal faculty mentorship is also shown to contribute to mentee’s productivity and tenure or promotion. Drawing on experiential and transformative learning theories and the role acquisition from of reference, students who participate in faculty fellowships can potentially increase their perceived self-efficacy for future faculty careers through active participation in the roles, routines and daily occupations of higher education faculty. Thus, the proposition of a faculty fellowship between experienced faculty and proteges in the education (EDU) track of the post-professional occupational therapy doctorate program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP) will be discussed.
