Date Presented 03/28/20
This study illustrates how a three-week international servant leadership experience in Zambia, Africa, resulted in increased dispositional critical thinking and cultural competency skills of student OTs.
Primary Author and Speaker: Jill Brown
Additional Authors and Speakers: Wendy Stav
PURPOSE: To gain insight on the professional development process that occurred as student occupational therapists embarked on an international service learning experience in Zambia, Africa. This excursion was developed from servant leadership principles, while measuring changes in critical reasoning and cultural competency of participants. This study was implemented due to the paucity of occupational therapy literature regarding the implementation, development, and outcomes of international learning courses and the impact such courses have on the professional development of students.
DESIGN: An experimental design was utilized to collect quantitative data to understand the professional development phenomenon that occurred for participants after a three-week immersion in Zambia. This study embedded quantitative methodology into the research design to understand changes in the dispositional critical thinking and cultural competency skills of student participants.
METHODS: Convenience sampling was utilized to recruit nine occupational therapy students enrolled in an international occupational therapy course in Zambia. The quantitative instruments included the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals-Student Version (IAPCC-SV). Both tools measured pre-trip and post-trip scores of participants with SPSS software. Due to the small sample size, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was utilized to measure the nonparametric data.
RESULTS: The CCTDI illustrated statistically significant increases in the disposition to think critically of student participants. The CCTDI pre-posttest findings were statistically significant in areas of truth-seeking, inquisitiveness, systematic thinking patterns, analyticity, and open-mindedness. The pre-posttest median scores further indicate a median effect size for the CCTDI composite scores for truth-seeking, inquisitiveness, analyticity, systematicity, and confidence. Open-mindedness and maturity of judgment had a small effect size.
The IAPCC-SV scores revealed statistically significant increases in participant composite scores in five constructs of cultural competency. Student participants demonstrated increased cultural awareness, cultural encounters, cultural knowledge, cultural desires and cultural skills. The quantitative data illustrated a very large r effect size on the cultural knowledge scores and large r effect size on the median scores for cultural awareness, cultural skills, and cultural encounters. A medium r effect size was found for the cultural desires construct. The IAPCC-SV instrument concluded that student participants had an increased cultural responsiveness and competency while engaged as servant leaders in Zambia.
CONCLUSION: This study illustrates how a three-week servant leadership experience in Zambia resulted in increased professional development for participating student occupational therapists. The study illuminated how a hands-on, experiential learning opportunity contributed to gained cultural competency and critical thinking skills for participating students. Students gained experience as servant leaders while delivering client-centered and occupation-based interventions while working alongside community members in Zambia. Continued implementation of such experiences can help prepare a powerful workforce to serve the inclusive needs of individuals, communities, and populations across contexts to ensure engagement in meaningful occupations, and quality of life.
References
Cipriani, J. (2017). Integration of international service learning in developing countries within occupational therapy education: Process and implications. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 31(1), 61-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07380577.2016.1244734
Short, N., & St. Peters, H. Y. (2017). Exploring the impact of service learning in Haiti on the cultural competence of OTD students. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 1(1), 1-15. http://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2017.010106
Sim, I., & Mackenzie, L. (2016). Graduate perspectives of fieldwork placements in developing countries: Contributions to occupational therapy practice. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 63, 244-256. http://doi.10.1111/1440-1630.12282
