Pedagogical needs from the perspective of curriculum internship supervision in occupational therapy

Abstract: Introduction: Curricular internship supervised by professors and professionals from services linked to the Unified Health System. Objective: To understand the pedagogical needs of internship supervisors in the occupational therapy course and the desirable characteristics of an internship supervisor, from the student perspective. Method: Cross-sectional and exploratory study of a qualitative nature, using thematic content analysis, comprising three stages: pre-analysis, exploration of material with treatment of results. Twenty-four internship supervisors and fifteen students from the occupational therapy course participated in the study, using two online semi-structured forms, one for supervisors and one for students. Results and Discussion: For the supervisors, the presence of the student in the service contributes to exchanges in the daily work, and instigates the preceptor to seek more knowledge, but they expect greater recognition of the supervisor’s performance and considered it important to have a continuous flow for training in teaching service professionals, in particular on performance evaluation and innovative practices. Students expect to find supervisors who make significant contributions to their learning in a safe way, through professional experience. Conclusion: The study revealed the pedagogical needs of internship supervision, the importance of training for teaching in services, and the importance of welcoming and monitoring students with guidance throughout the learning process. Based on these assumptions, a course design was developed for remote pedagogical training for internship supervisors