'We Weren’t Taught How to Recover from a Pandemic:' Recent Occupational Therapy Graduates’ Reflections on COVID-19

Autor: Laura H. VanPuymbrouck, Carli Friedman
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, Vol 6, Iss 2 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2573-1378
DOI: 10.26681/jote.2022.060205
Popis: In the spring of 2020, graduates from occupational therapy (OT) programs across the globe were entering a world of clinical unknowns. The students from this graduating cohort likely had little to no education or training on how to deliver OT in the wake of COVID-19. How well prepared did these new graduates perceive themselves to be to enter a healthcare climate in a pandemic and what were their biggest concerns? The objective of this study was to understand new graduates’ perspectives of the impact of COVID-19 on their future as occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs), and their sense of preparedness to address the challenges they might face. To do so, nine recent OT graduate students participated in semi-structured individual interviews. First cycle data analysis used descriptive and in-vivo codes and second cycle coding used pattern coding to identify emergent themes from across interviews. Three themes emerged in data analysis that represented how participants saw COVID-19 impacting their lives and their role as OTPs on multiple levels of systems and practice. These themes are: 1) Micro: COVID-19’s impact on work with clients; 2) Meso: COVID-19’s impact on the profession and the provision of OT; and 3) Macro: COVID-19’s impact on systems and structures. Based on these findings, implications for educators moving forward include: methods for preparing students to work with clients virtually and in a post-pandemic world; recommendations for developing strategies for working in unpredictable and unknown contexts; and, suggestions for addressing issues of equity and social justice.
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