Ambrosians have a deep commitment to community. In fact, it is one of the fundamental teachings of the university’s patron, Saint Ambrose of Milan, who wrote: "People ought to believe that nothing concerning human life is someone else's problem."
In 1987, St. Çï¿ûÊÓƵ stepped up for its community and began developing an occupational therapy program.
The university recognized an acute need in the Quad Cities, the State of Iowa, and the region for occupational therapists. At the time, there was no four-year degree program for occupational therapy in Iowa. No such program had existed in the state since the University of Iowa closed its major in the early 1970s.
When classes began at St. Ambrose in 1989, occupational therapy was a bachelor’s program. Now, 35 years later, it has evolved into a doctoral program, the longest-standing OT program in the state.
Dean of the College of Health and Human Services Lynn Kilburg ’91 OTR/L, ’01 MBA, DHSc, was a graduate of that first OT class. She has seen first-hand the program’s extensive journey as it continually evolves alongside the demands of health care while remaining true to the values of the university.
“Orientation towards community service and justice has always been true of St. Ambrose,” Kilburg said. “And that approach towards seeing the diverse perspective every person brings has remained over the years.”
The unique Ambrosian OT experience
The St. Ambrose Doctor of Occupational Therapy program strongly focuses on community partners and occupational justice.
“Occupational justice looks at individuals and tries to promote the greatest amount of engagement and access in their chosen roles and daily activities,” Kilburg explained.j
This approach to OT is person-centered. An aspect Kilburg believes makes St. Ambrose’s OTD program unique. The program’s strong focus on understanding each individual’s unique perspective and goals empowers their clients to take charge of their lives and attain meaningful outcomes.
Johnny McGee '24 OTD witnessed the power of this person-centered approach firsthand during his fieldwork. A client who refused to work with other therapists found success and increased his quality of life thanks to the personalized approach McGee took in his care.
"I knew what he liked. I knew what he wanted to work on, and I knew what his goals were," McGee recalled. "The other therapists were doing stuff that didn't really matter to him. He didn't see the point of working with them, but he saw the point of working with me because I explained how this could help him.
"We worked together for about a month and a half. He cried on my shoulder and told me, ‘Thank you,' and, ‘he couldn't have gotten there without my help.'"
Another unique aspect of the St. Ambrose OTD experience is the interprofessional approach to care. “Evidence has shown that this approach results in the best outcomes for people,” Kilburg said. It encourages a holistic style of health care where clinicians with different professional areas of expertise collaborate to meet a person’s goals.
“Interdisciplinary work is super important to learn because when we're working with our patients or caregivers, we have to know how we can work as a team and collaborate with those other professionals,” said Natalie Cremer ’21, ’25 OTD.
Students have the opportunity to learn this interprofessional style of medicine while serving the community through St. Ambrose’s Interprofessional Health Clinic which opened in 2015.
“It’s awesome because you're working with licensed therapists and you're working with people of different professions,” explained Elizabeth Nguyen ’25 OTD. “We’re also getting hands-on experience in real-life situations.”
Students from the occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and social work programs serve community members who have utilized all of their health care coverage for rehabilitation services, are underinsured, or have no insurance.
Rooted in community
Beyond the Interprofessional Health Clinic, the OTD program provides services to community members through .
Jim’s Place, created in 2011 thanks to a generous donation by the O’Rourke family, is an assistive technology house. There, students learn about devices and modifications that can be deployed in a home setting to promote independent living.
“This house is super meaningful in our learning because there are so many different types of equipment and rooms to be used,” Cremer said.
“It's beneficial as an occupational therapist when you will be working out in the real world because you might have to do home evaluations, test modifications, test simplifications, and recommend a lot of equipment or technology,” said Sam Volkmer ’21, ’25 OTD. “I can't stress enough the importance of Jim's Place in our learning because I think it will be so integrated moving forward in our practice.”
Jim’s Place also allows community members, caregivers, therapists, and clinicians to explore the home’s adaptive devices and modifications.
“They can work with OTs, our faculty, or students to individualize that to their own situation,” Kilburg said.
Another way the OTD program integrates community service into its program is through students’ Level I Fieldwork. Many OTD faculty have specific outreach projects or are involved with community agencies.
“Faculty go out with students in order to help them learn the skills that they need, but also to help provide services and meet the mission of those community agencies,” Kilburg said.
One such agency is Empower House QCA. Founded by four St. Ambrose alumni – two speech-language pathology graduates and two OT graduates – this brain injury clubhouse is a community-based rehabilitation program where brain injury survivors thrive to reach their full potential.
For St. Ambrose students, it offers hands-on experience administering assessments, running group interventions, and learning about the process of OT in a client-centered environment.
An expansive reach
One element that attracts students to the OTD program at St. Ambrose is its expansive fieldwork opportunities.
“Because St. Ambrose is established in Iowa, we have a large number of sites throughout the country where we're able to do fieldwork,” Nguyen, who comes from Minnesota, explained. “They have contracts with multiple different sites so you can do fieldwork anywhere.”
Kilburg credits this extensive reach to the program’s vast alumni network, its dedication to student success, and its long-standing status.
“We do have a really strong connection with our OT graduates across the region and nationally. That has been fantastic for supporting our students as we need to place them in fleld experiences,” Kilburg said. “And over time, we’ve repeated placements. We work hard to find out what those organizations' feedback might be for us as a program, and make sure that the students are well prepared. This is what has helped us be able to build that network.”
Remaining adaptive
Over its 35-year history, the OT program at St. Ambrose has continued to answer the demands of its field.
When the profession required a move to a post-baccalaureate level by 2007, the university established its master’s degree program by 2001.
During a 2011 accreditation visit, it was noted that the program met nearly all of the doctoral requirements and standards. Though students can enter the profession with a master’s degree, the university felt it had a commitment to its students to transition to the doctoral program.
“Given the length of our program, the requirements to complete it, and where our profession was going, to value the student’s time and effort, we felt the doctoral level was the appropriate degree,” Kilburg said. They made the switch in 2016.
New ways of learning and continuing to understand the demands of the profession remain a key focus of the OT program. It is an inherent attribute of an exemplary health care professional.
“As a program that's preparing doctoral-level therapists, one of the key issues we address is how we can anticipate the needs of people in our communities based on health care trends, social determinants of health, and what sorts of areas or services we're providing as OTs. That’s the OT perspective.
“Additionally, in health care, things like technology – being able to utilize more telehealth and evidence-based technology for evaluation and intervention – is really critical to remain relevant and cutting edge within the profession; that’s what our program strives to do.”
This fall, students in their first year of the program are learning in a hybrid format.
“Those sorts of approaches recognize what today’s learners are interested in,” Kilburg said. “The hybrid approach allows them to balance their life schedule with greater ease.”
The program offers three admissions pathways to meet people where they are in their educational and life journeys: Automatic conditional admission as a high school senior who has been admitted to St. Çï¿ûÊÓƵ or Loras College; automatic conditional admission as a first-year who has been admitted to St. Ambrose or Loras; and admission through the Occupational Therapist Centralized Application Service as a college junior, senior, or graduate.
“Those various pathways allow people greater mobility, so it's not only of interest to the students who you might think are traditionally headed towards college from high school, but also maybe people who are in the workforce and thinking about changing careers or changing pathways. It opens up more doors and options for them as well.”
Technology for the greater good
As technology continues to advance and evolve, the OTD program is committed to providing students with access to the most current evidence-based technology.
In the past year, the OTD program has integrated two new technologies into its coursework.
The Bioness System is used to work on the neuroplasticity of visual information – rewiring the brain to change through growth and reorganization. This interactive touch screen helps improve hand-eye coordination, reaction time, depth perception, and working memory.
Virtual reality programs help OTs design treatment plans to address motor, cognitive, and psychosocial skills.
These types of technologies aren’t available in typical OT settings. “You see these in larger institutions like a rehab institute or some of the specialized rehab hospitals,” said Jill Schmidt ’94 OTR, OTD, program director, occupational therapy department. If a student doesn’t complete fieldwork in a location like this, St. Ambrose is their only exposure to these tools.
“They’re able to come out with extra knowledge and skill sets compared to students at other schools,” Schmidt said. “This prepares them to advocate for their clients or write grants for facilities to make this equipment available for people, especially in rural communities. We’re preparing our students to use the technology and then promote it and make change.”
Schmidt says the program wouldn’t be able to provide these experiences to students without donor support. “Most of these pieces of equipment are $20,000 or more,” she said.
“That’s what makes our program unique. That we have donors that care so much about our education,” Schmidt said.