Education, research and competence development

FSA has almost 10 000 members. More than 130 of them have been awarded their PhD degree, about 10 are Professors, about 60 are doctoral students, 59 are council certified specialists in occupational therapy and about 1000 are students at the entry level training.

Education

Swedish occupational therapists receive their training at eight universities and institutes of higher education; Luleå, Umeå, Örebro, Stockholm, Göteborg, Jönköping, Linköping och Lund. Annually, about 370 occupational therapists qualify. They have the option to participate in postgraduate studies either via a graduate teacher training course or through research. Since 2007 the Bologna system is adopted at the Swedish universities and institutes of higher education.

FSAstud, our student organisation, works with the development of and student influence on the OT training.

The education political debate and the development in Sweden are monitored and processed by our education and research council. This council arranges a conference for OT lecturers and students every year.

Twice a year FSA organises meetings with the programme coordinators at the eight OT programmes, for discussions about strategical questions concerning the OT training.

Research

FSA members who are doctoral students, has the possibility to exchange knowledge, to get support and take part in discussions concerning theories and research methods at our Doctoral day.

Via our scientific council, we have created a platform for occupational therapists who have been awarded their PhD degree. Every year this council invites this target group from all Scandinavian countries for a Scientific forum.

Further education and competence development

FSA has a Scholarship Fund since 1976, which has been able to support around 200 projects. The funds can be used for research and further education in the occupational therapy field in Sweden.

In 2010 FSA has established a Grant award in the name of Inga-Britt Lindström, who has been the president of the FSA in 1970-2008. The grant is offered to individuals or teams from countries where occupational therapy is under development. The closing date for application is 1 October every year.

FSA offers a specialist training course for occupational therapists. This was started in 2002, because of the professions ever-increasing demands that medical care puts on specialist ability and professional specialisation. The specialist training course consists of compulsory and optional courses divided between courses related to the profession, functions and specialist skills. Read more about our specialist training in clinical competence in the document Information from The Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists (FSA) Advanced Clinical Competence Board about Specialist Training in Clinical Competence (relaterade dokument).

To make it possible for our members to follow the research going on in occupational therapy, they get the scientific and international “Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy” (SJOT) as a membership benefit. The journal was started in 1994 on the initiative of the FSA together with the other Nordic occupational therapy associations. For further information about this journal and subscription, see http://informahealthcare.com/sjot

To spread occupational therapy research and development we have At-forum, a national conference arranged every two years. Everything from description of fields of activities to research in (the shape of) lectures models, mini seminars, poster- and product exhibitions are presented.

FSA also offers possibilities for competence development through our courses, study circles, assessments and publications.

Read more about education, research and competence development in Sweden in the brochure Occupational therapy education and research in Sweden.