Student and Faculty Perspectives on Professionalism and Occupational Therapy

• In Event: Exploring Professional Identity Formation

Abstract

Development of professionalism is critical for occupational therapy (OT) students in becoming competent practitioners. This paper reports on the first phase of a multi-phase project to develop and pilot a situational judgement test to support teaching, learning, and development of professionalism in an OT program. The purpose of this study was to explore faculty and students’ perspectives on professionalism and OT. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were completed with students (n=18) and faculty (n=4). Main insights shared included challenges in defining professionalism in OT, the importance of context, and differing perspectives on the effectiveness of teaching professionalism within the curriculum. A working definition is proposed to facilitate a shared understanding of professionalism and inform the development of professionalism scenarios.

Authors

• Mary Roduta Roberts, University of Alberta

• Jilaine Barton, University of Alberta

• Amy Janzen, University of Alberta

• Carolina Johnson, University of Alberta

• Lauren Painchaud, University of Alberta