Advancing the Entry-Level Practitioner: A Curricular Model of the Professional Occupational Therapy Doctoral Degree

The recent growth of entry-level occupational therapy doctoral (EL-OTD) programs has been met with mixed opinions from both occupational therapy educators and practitioners. These opinions occasionally have been accompanied by uncertainty about the specific curricular components that differentiate the EL-OTD from the entry-level master’s degree. In an effort to address this uncertainty, the purpose of this article is to present one example of an EL-OTD curricular model and describe its distinct educational components. This curricular model integrates recommendations for doctoral education originally proposed by Case-Smith et al. (2014) and is characterized by the following three components: 1) Advanced Coursework; 2) the Doctoral Capstone Project; and 3) the Doctoral Capstone Experience. We share the lessons learned after matriculating three cohorts of EL-OTD students and describe influences from the field of implementation science that have informed the development of our curriculum.