RESEARCH CAPACITY IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PRACTICE: UNDERSTANDING THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF EARLY CAREER FIRST CLASS (HONOURS) OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS

Abstract

There is a continued need to build research capacity within the allied health professions (Council for Allied Health Professions Research, 2016). As one of the larger allied health professions, this is also the case for occupational therapy. Each year there are approximately 1,000 graduate occupational therapists entering the health and social care workforce, joining what is a current UK community of 38,183 qualified occupational therapists (HCPC, 2018). One requirement of being a professional occupational therapist is adherence to professional standards, including a commitment to advancement of the evidence base through engagement with research activity (COT, 2015). This study provides in-depth understanding of the research capacity experiences of early career occupational therapists. The study aims to contribute to the UK Occupational Therapy profession’s knowledge about research capacity in practice and to use the research findings to inform the development of local Occupational Therapy undergraduate programme provision. This study used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis as the discrete research approach. Through purposive homogenous sampling, eight early career first class (Hons) occupational therapists who graduated from one UK University, participated in this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a ‘participant profile’, and analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis step guide (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). Findings suggest that the early career occupational therapists in this study face professional challenges that have an impact on their current and future contribution to research capacity. These challenges are discussed using three topic areas:- professional identity of early career occupational therapists, professional socialisation of early career occupational therapists, and research capacity and how it is defined. Contributing to research capacity is not fully integrated into the professional identity of early career first class (Honours) occupational therapists. Professional socialisation within the workplace appears to have an impact on the research capacity contribution of early career occupational therapists. Occupational therapy undergraduate students should be better prepared for research utilisation and research production during their undergraduate learning. Strategies to further embed research capacity contribution within the occupational therapy curriculum are identified. This study suggests that acknowledging a continuum of research activities would be helpful to promote a more inclusive perspective on research capacity contribution.