Traci Kruse, OTD, MA, OTR/L

Director of Experiential Learning, Program in Occupational Therapy

Assistant Professor, Program in Occupational Therapy

OTD in Occupational Therapy, Saint Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota

MA in Occupational Therapy, College of Saint Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota

BS in Occupational Science, College of Saint Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota

Summary

Dr. Kruse is currently the Director of Experiential Learning at the University of Minnesota. She has practiced clinically in home health for 9 years, and has additional clinical experience in long-term care and transitional care settings. Dr. Kruse is passionate about aging in place and home safety, along with cognition, memory, and maintaining activities of interest through the lifespan. Her research interests include the role of Occupational Therapy in reducing hospitalizations in the home health setting. She is also passionate about community accessibility which can limit a person’s ability to participate in activities of interest.

Dr. Kruse has supervised students in the home health setting for both level I and II placements. She understands the challenges and rewards that come with having a student and feels the role of Director of Experiential Learning is more than just placing students in a site. She feels she is also here to support fieldwork educators, students, and faculty to build on strengths in their roles and guide experiential learning.

Research

Experiential learning, clinical reasoning, student perceptions of clinical experiences, interrelation between clinical educators, students, and universities, aging in place, community accessibility, mental health, and maintaining activities of interest throughout the lifespan