Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
OTs are integral in education settings, but their inability to define their role and differences between the educational and therapeutic cultures challenge their professional identity development. Reliable and valid tools to assess the role perceptions and professional identity of OTs in education systems indicate that teamwork is the most influential factor in OTs' positive professional identity.
Primary Author and Speaker: Yael Fogel
Additional Authors and Speakers: Liron Lamash
PURPOSE: Much prior evidence has demonstrated uncertainty and confusion about professional identity among occupational therapists who work with groups of different populations, ages, and settings. Occupational therapists with a low sense of professional identity experience challenges in implementing evidence-based interventions and risk burnout (Scanlan, 2018). In education systems, the occupational therapist’s primary role is supporting the educational environment, academic achievement, and social participation of students with disabilities (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014). Two main components may influence occupational therapists’ formulation of professional identity in education systems: the practitioners’ ability to define their role and encounters between the educational and therapeutic cultures. However, the relationships between the occupational therapists’ professional-identity perceptions and the way in which they perceive their role in the education system have not yet been examined. This current research investigates those correlations and assesses predictors of positive professional identity among occupational therapists in education systems.
DESIGN: Occupational therapists who work in education systems completed anonymous online questionnaires sent in a dedicated distribution group.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 147 participants aged 23 to 65 years (M = 38.37 years, SD = 10.13). The demographic questionnaire revealed sample from variety of educational institutions, who work with a variety of populations. The participants professional seniority ranging from 0.5 to 35.0 years (M = 12.75 years, SD = 9.23) and full-time equivalency ranging from 17% to 121% (M = 75.23%, SD = 25.94). The Professional Identity Scale (Fisherman, & Weiss, 2011), that ranks the professional identity perception of teachers and has been modified to occupational therapists who work in education systems, and the Role Perception Questionnaire for Occupational Therapists (Fogel, 2020), that assess how occupational therapists perceive their role in educational systems were used; both were found reliable and validity for use in this population. Correlations between professional identity and role perception, as well as professional-identity predictors among the occupational therapists’ role perception and demographic characteristics were examined.
RESULTS: Significant correlation was found between professional identity and role perception total scores (r = .39, p < .001), with medium-to-strong correlations between professional identity and role perception factors (r = .49 - .91, p < .001). Teamwork was found as the primary predictor, explaining 82% of professional identity variance, F(1, 139) = 635.17, p < .001, R = .91, R2adjusted = .82.
CONCLUSION: This study identified factors that promote professional identity among occupational therapists who deliver clinical services in the educational system, using reliable and valid tools targeted to the unique environment and requirements of education systems.
IMPACT STATEMENT: Identifying the factors that promote positive professional identity among occupational therapists in the education system provides insight into the occupational therapists' personal and professional needs vis-á-vis education system requirements and as a strategy to prevent burnout. To gain professional identity as a community of practice, the broad role-perception component of teamwork can lead occupational therapists to perceive themselves—and be perceived by others—as a mature profession with a clear self-identity and sense of self.
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (3rd ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68, S1–S48. http://dx.doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2014.682006
Fisherman, S., & Weiss, I. (2011). Zehut miktso’it shel morim-Hamusag u’medidato [Professional identity of teachers: The concept and its measurement]. Dapim, 51, 39–57.
Fogel, Y. (2020). Role-Perception Questionnaire for Occupational Therapists in the education system [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Occupational Therapy, Ariel University.
Scanlan, J. N., Still, M., Stewart, K., & Croaker, J. (2010). Recruitment and retention issues for occupational therapists in mental health: Balancing the pull and the push. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 57, 102–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2009.00814.x
