Practice Scholar Apprenticeship

NAU OT students have research opportunities

The Practice Scholar Apprenticeship (PSA) program at NAU provides a unique opportunity for students to experience participating on research teams and engage in practice-based and community-engaged research projects. During the first year of the program, students are placed into PSA teams and continue their work on the research projects for the remainder of the doctoral program.

The PSA mentors are NAU OTD faculty and community clinicians who identify the scope of the project and collaborate with the NAU OTD students in all research activities including literature reviews, data collection, data analysis and dissemination. The overall goal of the PSA experience is to promote scholarly endeavors that will describe and interpret the scope of the profession, establish new knowledge, and interpret and apply this knowledge to practice.

Recent graduates report accomplishing the following while enrolled in the NAU OT Program:

• 78% presented at a state and/or national conference
• 69% submitted a manuscript for publication
• 58% served in a leadership role
• 30% applied for a grant to support their research