Partnerships in occupational therapy between practitioners and researchers are important to advance knowledge relevant to clinical practice and support evidence-based practice in the profession.
Purpose.
This Muriel Driver lecture discusses why we should support practitioners’ engagement in research and examines essential conditions required for successful collaborative partnerships in research.
Key Issues.
Collaborative partnerships can alleviate the challenges preventing practitioners from participating in research and ensure that research initiatives are more relevant to clinical practice. Key factors for building and sustaining meaningful partnerships include the presence of favourable pre-partnership conditions related to the context and the use of guiding principles focusing on vision, values, trust, communication, power sharing, and interactions.
Implications.
Several of the factors found to foster a good collaborative partnership are consistent with our core competency roles and reflect our professional values. Being mindful of these factors when initiating research collaborations would increase the likelihood of success.
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