The Relationship of Academic Degree and Years in Practice to Occupational Therapists' Perceptions of the Status of the Profession and Educational Preparation

Abstract

A questionnaire survey was sent to 2,000 occupational therapists and certified occupational therapy assistants to gather data on perceptions of the state of the profession and its educational system. Eight hundred and eleven questionnaires were returned and analyzed with a Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance. The results of two sections of the questionnaire are presented here. These results suggest that, in general, therapists feel that the status of occupational therapy should be improved and that the education of occupational therapists should change. However, there are significant differences of opinion about what should be done to improve the status of the profession and what changes should be made in education. These differences are related to subgroups in the profession. This article presents an overview of some of the differences in perceptions of the profession and its educational system according to two variables—academic degree held and years in practice.