Abstract
Background Occupational therapists form a significant proportion of the allied health workforce in developed countries. Demand for occupational therapists in Australia is growing due to the rapidly expanding population of people living with chronic and complex conditions. Recent Australian government initiatives conducted through Health Workforce Australia have been implemented to enhance training opportunities to increase workforce supply. But increasing graduate numbers is only one part of a solution to matching workforce supply and demand. Another part that has had considerable attention in medicine but little in allied health, is where they want to work their practice preferences.
Highlights
Occupational therapists form a significant proportion of the allied health workforce in developed countries
Invitations were sent to Australian universities offering occupational therapy and convenience sampling was used to recruit anonymous volunteers who completed the investigator developed survey
More than half the participants thought the following factors influenced their practice preference ‘a lot’ or ‘enormously’: fieldwork experience (76.6%), fit with skills/ ability(74.5%), challenge (69.4%), opportunity for greater creativity (65.8%), opportunity to perform therapy procedures (61.2%), professional development opportunities (56.4%) and intellectual content (52.3%)
Summary
Occupational therapists form a significant proportion of the allied health workforce in developed countries. Methods A survey design was used to investigate views of final year occupational therapy students. Invitations were sent to Australian universities offering occupational therapy and convenience sampling was used to recruit anonymous volunteers who completed the investigator developed survey.
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