Ms Clare Beanlands

I am a senior lecturer in occupational therapy. I joined LSBU in 2004 after 19 years working as an NHS occupational therapist at clinical and managerial levels, mainly in long-term neurological and musculoskeletal settings. I use a flipped classroom approach when teaching my MSc/PgDip Human Function module. This combines online lectures with practical activities in the skills laboratories. In 2018 I was awarded the LSBU Innovation in Teaching award for this initiative. I am the skills lead for the MSc/PGDip Occupational Therapy and have an interest in simulation e.g. use of actors and mannikins in teaching.

For my PhD in Health Studies I explored occupational therapy students’ experiences of professional reasoning during their practice-based learning drawing on dialogical analysis (Bakhtin). My findings suggest that as well as being socialised into the reasoning of the profession by their educators, professional reasoning is a means by which students enact, affirm, and negotiate their individual professional identity. Person-centred and occupation-centred values influenced reasoning and reasoning was experienced as an emotional as well as a cognitive process.
I am the CPPD lead for occupational therapy and have developed and regularly facilitate workshops for NHS Trusts on clinical supervision and to update mental health occupational therapists on their physical health skills.

Occupational Therapy