Abstract
Knowledge and awareness about occupational therapy (OT) are essential for the delivery of quality care to all clients and for occupational therapists' (OTRs) job satisfaction. OT has been a poorly understood profession in Jordan. The current study reports on the assessment of Jordanians' awareness and knowledge of occupational therapy. Convenience sampling was used. There were 829 participants (474 males, 355 females), with mean age of 32 ± 11.6 yrs. They were recruited from the three main geographical areas of Jordan (northern, central, and southern) and from all educational levels. The sample included 222 (26.8%) healthcare personnel, 146 (17.6%) clients, and 461 (55.6%) lay persons. Participants completed questionnaires, and the results revealed that 48% of the sample had poor or no knowledge about OT, while 28.3% were unaware of it. Also, OT was commonly (50%) perceived to be exclusively targeting people with disabilities (PWDs) and neurological and physical conditions (58% and 53%, resp.) in addition to exclusively providing services for the rehabilitation of the upper extremity (48%). Common misconceptions associated with OT were that OTRs prescribe medication (43%) and OTRs are physiotherapists (44%). These preliminary findings suggest that efforts need to be directed by OTRs, the Jordanian Society of Occupational Therapy (JSOT), and the Ministry of Health to preserve the OT identity and value and promote knowledge about OT in the public and among members of interdisciplinary teams. More interprofessional learning needs to be incorporated within the curricula and placements of all healthcare personnels.
Highlights
Occupational therapy (OT) is one of the components of a multidisciplinary team approach that focuses on enabling participation in meaningful occupations as an essential element of healthcare [1,2,3]
This study has shown that the role of occupational therapists is still not well recognized in Jordan, which resonates with the results of previous studies [17, 18]
This study found that there was confusion concerning the role of occupational therapists (OTRs) among the public and even among clients and other healthcare professionals, which resonated with the findings of Abu Tariah et al [18] and Katz et al [29]
Summary
Occupational therapy (OT) is one of the components of a multidisciplinary team approach that focuses on enabling participation in meaningful occupations as an essential element of healthcare [1,2,3]. The conceptualization of OT has been vague among the public [4] and even among healthcare professionals [5]. This becomes more evident in some countries with low and lower middle-income economies, such as Jordan and Nigeria [6, 7], and in some clinical settings such as mental health and school-based settings [4, 8]. Clients can sometimes be deprived of OT services because healthcare professionals lack knowledge about the services provided by registered occupational therapists (OTRs) [6, 9]. Other healthcare professionals’ knowledge about OT affects the status of the profession and the level of job satisfaction among OTRs [10]
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