Our project team was formed to include the principle investigator, the co-investigator, and a grant assistant.

The IRB was submitted and approved March 14, 2005. 

The website for this grant will be under continual construction in order to ensure up-to-date information and accuracy. 

A media announcement was published in ACCESS, newsletter of the Nebraska Office of Rural Health, Issue 39, February, 2005.  Click here to view this article.

Occupational therapy student and practitioner focus groups and questionnaires were developed and completed. 

We planned to have six OT students participate in the spring 2005 rural health experience.  However, instead 11 occupational therapy II students completed an overnight stay at one of the rural training sites (Gothenburg, Sidney, or Hebron). 

Upon returning from the rural practice experience the 11 student participants shared their reflections with their classmates. 

We completed the first set of qualitative and quantitative data analysis by mid-June, 2005. 

An article was published in the Nebraska Occupational Therapy Association (NOTA) newsletter, NOTA Perspectives, in July/August 2005.  Click here to view this article.

The PI visited the three training sites in mid June 2005.

On September 16, Shirley Blanchard (PI) met with Dennis Berens to discuss the rural health grant. 

Twenty-two occupational therapy II students signed up for the six spaces for the fall 2005 rural health experience.  Fifteen students ended up completing the experience.  Three groups of three visited Hebron, a group of three visited Gothenburg, and a final group of four visited our site in Sidney. 

A practitioner focus group including Justin Johnson and Tracy Milius came to Creighton in October to talk about their experiences in rural health.  Click here to view pictures of their visit to Creighton.

The class of 2007 held a discussion on November 8th to talk about the experiences of those 15 students who went to the rural sites. 

After this final focus group post test questionnaires were completed. 

The Co-PI visited the sites in mid November 2005. 

We have completed data entry for the surveys from the spring and fall student groups. 

An abstract for a paper presentation was submitted to the National Rural Health Association for 2006, which is pending.

An abstract was submitted to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) for the Spring 2006 Conference, however, this abstract was not accepted. 

Further dissemination of research findings include submitting: 1) poster presentation for the Nebraska Occupational Therapy Association fall conference; and 2) manuscript to an occupational therapy journal, 3) presentation at the National Rural Health Conference, 4) resubmission of abstract for Spring 2007 AOTA conference with data analysis included.