Terri Grant

Terri Grant

Principal Lecturer in Occupational Therapy; MSc (Pre-registration) Occupational Therapy Course Lead

School of Allied Health and Community

Department of Allied Health

Contact Details

email: t.grant@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 542768

Terri qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1996, just as the education system adjusted to degree-level education. The vast majority of her career was spent as a specialist Stroke Rehabilitation Occupational Therapist, although she enjoyed roles in acute physical health, rheumatology & hand therapy and as a wheelchair therapist before finding a love of all things neuro.

Before leaving the NHS Terri was one of the founder members of the now well-established and successful Community Stroke Service in Worcestershire, and she really enjoyed working to support the development of students, support workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and nurses as part of her team leadership and management role in the service.

In 2014 Terri worked as an associate lecturer on the BSc Occupational Therapy course here at Worcester, which gave her the confidence to leave the NHS and pursue teaching full-time from 2015. Since then, she spent three years as Practice Education Lead for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy and is currently the course leader for the MSc (Pre-registration) Occupational Therapy course.

Terri does not have a lot of spare time, thanks to working towards her PhD, but when she does she tries to maintain an occupational balance and seek physical and mental restoration by practicing the Korean sword martial art of Haidong Gumdo. She was the first woman in the UK to achieve Black Belt status in this art. 

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy
  • MSc Neurological Occupational Therapy
  • PG Cert Learning &Teaching in Higher Education
  • PG Cert Research Methods

Teaching & Research

Teaching Interests

Terri enjoys creating unusual tasks to enable all students to access learning. She has employed game based learning and other practical methods to enable students to deepen theoretical understanding. She likes to maintain a teaching presence across both BSc and MSc courses, and have been module leader for varying modules over the years including Health, Wellbeing and Occupation, Enabling Occupation, Anatomy & Physiology, Essential Occupational Therapy Practice and Critical Perspectives of Occupational Therapy. She therefore knows both programmes well, and often teaches into other modules for neurological content.

Until 2022 Terri worked as Practice Education Lead, but has since stepped back from this to focus on the MSc (Pre-reg) course and is really enjoying working with postgraduate students who are new to Occupational Therapy. Terri has been shortlisted for a number of Student Choice Teaching awards, including the Deputy Vice Chancellor’s award, but has never quite got to win them!

Terri currently holds a University of Worcester Leading Teaching Award and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.

Research Interests

Terri is currently studying for her PhD here at the University of Worcester. Her research explores what students actually learn (not just what we think they learn!) during their first placement experience, with a view to considering how this knowledge can be used to develop simulation in relation to Practice Education in Occupational Therapy. She is using Grounded Theory Methodology to develop a theory of Practice Learning, which she hopes to publish soon, to support students when they are on placement.

She is the winner of the 2022 Royal College of Occupational Therapists Early Researcher Award, having presented results from her research at national conference and is flying to Australia in June 2023 to present her theory there.

Professional Bodies

  • British Association of Occupational Therapists
  • Royal College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section – Neurological Practice
  • Fellow HEA
  • Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare

External Roles

Royal College of Occupational Therapists Practice Placement Tutors Forum (Secretary) 2017 – 2021

External Examiner MSc (Pre-registration) Occupational Therapy UCLAN 2022/23

Publications

Publications

  • Thomas Y, Frank H, Grant T, Lees, R, Neil, L (2023) Health professional graduate perspectives of practice education during the COVID-19 pandemic: From uncertainty to employability Journal of Practice Teaching & Learning [in print]
  • Grant T, Gossman P, Thomas Y, Berragan, L, Frank H (2023) “I left feeling different about myself”: What students learn on their first practice placement British Journal of Occupational Therapy 86(2) pp138-148
  • Grant T, Thomas Y, Gossman P and Berragan L. (2021). The Use of Simulation in Occupational Therapy. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal
  • Grant, T. (2021) Occupational Therapy Placements. Banbury: Lantern Publishing Ltd.
  • Grant, T. (2019) ‘Using Technology Enhanced Learning to Promote the Acquisition of Practical Skills in Occupational Therapy’, Journal of Occupational Therapy Education. Eastern Kentucky University, 3(2). doi: 10.26681/jote.2019.030212.
  • Grant, T. (2017b) ‘Creating care homes that aid stroke rehabilitation’. AKW
  • Grant, T. (2017a) ‘A Leap into the Dark and the Unknown’, OT News.

Conference Presentations

  • ANZAPHE 2023: A theory of practice learning to inform traditional and simulated placements
  • Occupational Therapy Australia 2023: What to include in placement simulation - a theory of practice learning
  • UW Student Experience Conference 2023: Towards a Grounded Theory of Practice Learning
  • NET 22: Simulating Practice Education: what should we simulate?
  • Frank, H., Grant, T., Thomas, Y., Lees, R. (2022) Student experiences of practice education during COVID 19 -Resilience and Readiness for employment. NET (Networking for Health Education) conference 2022, Lancaster University, Sept 6 & 7.
    https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/programmes-events/conferences/NET2022-Conference
  • RCOT National Conference 2022: Simulating Practice Education – what should we simulate?
  • UW Teaching & Learning Conference 2022: Simulating Practice Education –
    how do we know what to simulate?
  • TAMK (Tampere University, Finland) Practice Education during Covid 19
  • RCOT National Conference 2019: Going on a goose chase - practical equipment skills in a competitive learning environment
  • UK Stroke Forum 2018: Development of an App to support service users understanding of cognitive changes after stroke
  • UW Teaching & Learning Conference 2017: Enhancing The Student Experience Without Diminishing The Staff Experience Via Peer Assessment