Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
Undergraduate OT students face great challenges when transitioning to employment. A meaningful combination of theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and personal abilities provides them a better sense of readiness for their future roles as OTs, which requires caring for clients and resilience in dealing with difficult, life-changing events. This mixed-methods pilot study empirically examines those variables before and after students’ last fieldwork training.
Primary Author and Speaker: Ruth Shoham
Additional Authors and Speakers: Yael Fogel
PURPOSE: The transition from learning in an academic environment to employment as an occupational therapist is one of the greatest challenges students face. Although the goal of occupational therapy curricula is to prepare students for clinical work, students often do not feel ready and express insecurity in knowledge and skills (Seah et al., 2011). The curricula provide students with ‘hard skills’-theoretical knowledge and professional experience-and periods of hands-on training and skills development through dedicated courses and assessment of personal skills in study and practice. Additionally, students acquire ‘soft skills’-a broad spectrum of capabilities and attributes such as leadership, interpersonal communication, creativity, conscientiousness, initiative, troubleshooting, and integrity (Kulik & Benjamin, 2014). To date, studies have tested students’ sense of readiness in the context of their hard and soft skills by oral feedback, grades, and mentorship in practical training but have not measured the level of student readiness prior to leaving academia for employment. This study empirically examines the contribution of the last fieldwork practice to the sense of readiness among undergraduate occupation therapy students.
DESIGN: This study used mixed methods. The initial quantitative (survey) phase explores differences in hard and soft skills before and after the last fieldwork practice. The qualitative phase (open-ended question) explores these relationships in more depth and uncovers participants’ unique experiences of their sense of readiness. A convenience sample of 23 female undergraduate occupation therapy students (age 20–30 years) participated.
METHOD: An email explaining the study and its requirements was sent to participants. Interested students were provided links to the online consent form and demographic questionnaire. Before and after their fieldwork training, they also completed online the ‘OT Go to Work’ questionnaire (Shoham Fogel, 2019), which examines ‘hard skills,’ and the Employability Key Questionnaire (EKQ): Soft Skills for Employment (Kulik & Benjamin, 2014).
RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the ‘OT Go to Work’ total score before and after fieldwork training, F(3, 20) = 1.99, p = NA, η2 = .23. The EKQ results showed significant differences in both its total score, F(1, 22) = 8.14, p < .001, η2 = .27, and three of its four categories, F(4, 19) = 16.31, p < .001, η2 = .77. The significant differences were found in the areas of interpersonal skills, coping with changes, and task-orientation skills, showing that these skills improved during the practical fieldwork training. There were no significant differences in organizational skills.
CONCLUSION: This study reinforces the need for a practical training period in which occupational therapy students acquire and develop soft skills. Analysis of the qualitative question revealed that a strong sense of readiness relates to the hard skills students acquire even before practical training begins, but practical training is significant for students to develop and strengthen their employment skills. The significant improvements in soft skills, such as listening, coping with organizational change, planning and organizing assignments, relating to diversity, accommodating schedules, resourcefulness, integrity, and professionalism during the fieldwork training highlight their significant contribution.
IMPACT STATEMENT: Preparing students for work in occupational therapy may contribute to their sense of readiness to begin working in the profession. The results reinforce both the existing curriculum and the need for experiential learning to accompany personal and professional processes.
References
Kulik, L., & Benjamin, B. (2014). ‘Key to Employment’: Diagnosing soft skills to promote young employment. School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
Seah, C. H., Mackenzie, L., & Gamble, J. (2011). Transition of graduates of the Master of Occupational Therapy to practice. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 58, 103–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2010.00899.x
Shoham, R., & Fogel, Y. (2019). The OT Go to Work Questionnaire [in process]. Occupational Therapy Department, Haifa University, Israel.
