Occupational Perspective Research Articles

Exploring communication in families affected by parental chronic pain: An occupational perspective

Background Family communication about pain is an important therapeutic target when a parent lives with chronic pain. Occupational therapy literature about communication in families affected by parental chronic pain is currently lacking. Aims/Objectives To bring an occupational perspective to communication within families affected by parental chronic pain, to generate insights for practice. Materials and Methods Five families (total n = 19 family members) were recruited into this collective case study. The gathered data included interviews, observations, and personal documents/artefacts. A cross-case analysis of similarities and differences between families was conducted to distil insights about the relationship between occupation and communication about parental pain. Results Each family develops its own style of communicating about a parent’s pain. On a day-to-day basis, pain-related communication is prompted by experienced, observed and/or anticipated occupational disruption brought about by parental pain. Conclusions Occupational disruption and occupational responses need to be components of interest, when designing assessments and interventions targeted at communication in families affected by parental chronic pain. Significance The findings from this study point to the importance of communication through occupation in families affected by parental chronic pain and suggest novel targets for occupational therapy intervention.

An Occupational Perspective on Productive Aging among Older Adults: Occupational Therapy Implications

Aim: Productive aging is seen to have a positive influence on an individual’s health and is vital in the quality of life for older adults. Occupational therapists promote productive aging both in the individual and community level, yet little is known about productive aging from older adults. With phenomenology, authors aimed to explain the phenomenon of productive aging through older adults’ perspectives. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted on eight participants from a densely populated village in Cebu, Philippines. Results: Through thematic analysis, three themes emerged: (1) living life to its fullest as occupational beings, (2) physical and financial limitations as occupational limitations of aging, and (3) satisfaction with social responsibility as one’s purpose. Conclusion: Collaborative efforts between occupational therapists and communities are needed to draft programs to provide older adults opportunities for socialization and volunteer and civic work. Communities are called to actively involve older adults in their activities.

Editorial] Gut microbiota modulation: A tailored approach for the prevention of chronic diseases

Editorial] Gut microbiota modulation: A tailored approach for the prevention of chronic diseases

‘Doing’ dating: A cross‐sectional survey of young adults (18–35 years) in Australia and Hong Kong

Dating is an occupation through which people form intimate relationships with others. Despite the importance of intimate relationships for wellbeing, there is limited information available in occupational therapy literature about the activities involved in dating and little guidance for practitioners who wish to support clients from diverse backgrounds who experience difficulties with dating. To address this gap, this study sought to explore dating among young adults (18-35 years) and compare dating activities between two contexts: Australia and Hong Kong. Data were collected using an e-survey designed for this study and refined using cognitive interviewing (n = 12). It included questions about dating initiation and activities. Study design and reporting was guided by the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and between group comparisons. Reponses to open ended questions were subjected to interpretative content analysis and quantified. In total, 2208 young adults aged 18-35 who had at least one dating experience and resided in either Australia or Hong Kong completed the survey. Participants met their dates most commonly through school, friends, dating apps, and work. The most frequent ways to ask a person on a date were by suggesting 'hanging out' or going out for food, drink or to the movies. Most participants reported that organising a date required extended negotiation between the parties. Differences were found between participants from Hong Kong and Australia. This is the first study of contemporary dating from an occupational perspective and provides an understanding of dating activities in two different cultural contexts.

Newly-graduated nurses’ work-integrated learning: A qualitative study from an educational and occupational perspective

AimThe aim of this study was to describe newly graduated nurses’ (NGNs’) experience of work-integrated learning (WIL), from an educational and occupational perspective. BackgroundNGNs often find themselves unprepared to meet occupational demands on their competence on entering working life, and express difficulties integrating educational theory into a practical context. Qualitative and effective WIL becomes particularly important for NGNs to develop the competence required to handle the transition from education to working life. DesignThis is a qualitative, descriptive study with an inductive approach. MethodsSeven focus-group discussions were performed and subjected to qualitative content analysis. ResultsThe results revealed that WIL for NGNs includes personal mastering of several professional roles: a self-directed and collaborative learning role, a relational nursing role, and a transition from a student role to a collegial role. Furthermore, WIL entails adapting to organisational requirements, including development of contextual workplace knowledge and understanding; striving for confidence in medical-technical performance; and developing an experience-based understanding of clinical situations. ConclusionThe results reveal that WIL is complex, encompassing adaptation to roles and personal capabilities that increase new graduates’ competence and preparation for work. In addition, WIL requires personal commitment to one’s own learning as well as organisational and social support.

Effectiveness of an intervention to reduce accidents in bus drivers.

Medical incapacity at the wheel is a small but significant factor in accident causation. To mitigate against this, in July 2017 a UK-based bus operator changed its medical assessment policy, requiring all future medicals to include a request to the General Practitioner (GP) for information about any conditions in the medical record which could affect fitness to drive. To evaluate the impact of the change in policy on accident rates. Accident data were obtained over a 5-year period, with information on age and length of service of drivers, from three bus depots. Monthly accident rates, before and after the change in policy were compared with the Wilcoxon matched pairs test, and a line of best fit/R2 obtained via a scatter graph. Although a general downward trend in accident rates was seen, there was no statistically significant difference between the overall accident rates in the 12 months before and after the policy change in July 2017 (P-value = 0.519, significance level P < 0.05). The downward trend in accident rates observed over the study period could not be attributed to the change of policy. However, this intervention warrants further scrutiny due to the potential consequences of passenger service vehicle accidents. Evidence suggests that professional awareness of the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency fitness to drive standards can be limited, so requesting GP input into driver medicals may raise awareness of these standards from an occupational health perspective.

A Scoping Review of the Maternal Role at Older Age; Perceptions and Occupations.

Motherhood is a meaningful life role among adult women. Occupations within the maternal role of younger mothers have been well documented, but less is known regarding the maternal-role at older age. This review aimed to describe the occupations, activities, and perceptions that older women ascribe to their maternal role. In the future, this information may promote health and wellbeing of older women. A systematic search of peer reviewed articles, that included healthy, community-dwelling mothers, 60 years of age or older, was conducted. Maternal-role occupations and perceptions of older mothers were identified and classified according to the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF). Fourteen articles, representing 3102 older mothers, were included. The identified occupations and activities within the maternal role were from two categories: Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) (such as assistance with daily chores) and social participation (such as sharing holiday rituals). Three themes reflecting maternal-role perceptions were identified: providing support; relationship with children; and motherhood as a never-ending role. Maternal occupations were identified in only a few articles and from only two categories, IADL and social participation. These findings together with the perception that motherhood is a ‘never-ending’ role suggests that further research is needed to better characterize the maternal role of older women from an occupational perspective.

Night-time leisure: Gender and sexuality intersected by generation, style, and race in the São Paulo pop LGBTQ+ scene

ABSTRACT Considering that sexuality and gender are both relevant to the study of occupations and the practice of occupational therapy, this paper aims to investigate the importance of night-time leisure for the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, many other terms) group in identity shaping. An ethnographic study of five nightclubs, which were frequented by young LGBTQ+ pop scene in São Paulo, Brazil, was undertaken. Data were analyzed qualitatively through intersectionality and post-humanist Queer Theory. Findings show that night-time leisure can enact support for LGBTQ+ people; however, several forms of discrimination of this group remain, due to class, style, race, and generation markers. These operators of difference may reveal how occupations are shaped by identity, just like identity is shaped by occupation. Additionally, the findings support that ‘doing gender’ is related to technologies of gender. The article contributes to theoretical and methodological advances in studies on leisure and sexuality from an occupational perspective.

“Jardins das ocupações”: estratégias de cuidados diante de perdas ocupacionais e luto

Abstract Situations experienced as stressful, such as the death of loved ones, loss of jobs, dreams, projects and others, have directly or indirectly affected people's routinely occupations, resulting in disruptions, changes and withdrawals from daily occupational preferences - both externally and the ones carried out in the domestic environment - which can impact the person and the way in which they engage and participate in social life. This article presents a proposal for intervention and care in the conditions of significant loss and mourning and promotes reflections on this subject from an occupational perspective, correlating concepts from Occupation Science, Logotherapy and Existential Analysis by Viktor Frankl. Therefore, it is based on the interventional strategy of care in mourning, called “Garden of occupations”, which uses elements such as metaphors and drawing as possibilities to create approximations with the theoretical foundation anchored in Occupational Science, from the perspective of existential tension and values of meaning by Viktor Frankl. The interventional proposal “Garden of occupations” is considered a participatory, reflective instrument, with the potential to deepen reflections and understandings about the meanings of life and engagement in occupations in the face of losses suffered.

An Analysis of the Cultivation Methods of Visual Communication Design in New Media Environment.

In order to better adapt to the teaching development needs of visual communication design in the new media environment, a method of visual communication design training based on the ecological environment of the new media environment is proposed. This method constructs a web-based professional course network teaching platform by cultivating practical design talents under the new platform, new environment, and new technology, starting from the perspective of practical application, starting from the teaching process of visual communication design specialty, combined with the needs of social development for students' creative needs, so as to provide rich visual communication design cases, design practice, and exchange and discussion platform for professional teaching. The results show that the local display time of the system page is too long. It takes 3.3 seconds to enter the query page manually, and the script test time is 0.3 seconds, so the page display time takes about 3 seconds. The system basically meets the functional requirements, but from the perspective of resource occupation, the program requirements are further optimized to reduce the utilization of CRU. From the analysis of memory usage, it is suggested to optimize the memory recycling mechanism.

An outlook on the future of Brazilian agriculture: how farming students of Tocantins perceive sustainability in the Cerrado

In the Brazilian Cerrado, the land-use change caused by the expansion and intensification of agribusiness farming has led to dramatic socio-environmental problems. To foster sustainable development, Brazilian farming students have to learn about land use according to the Sustainable Development Goals and how to implement them on their home farm and future workplace. Through a questionnaire-based survey, our study explored the perceptions of 128 students at the Family Farming High School of Porto Nacional on the sustainability of farming systems in the Cerrado of Tocantins. We analyzed the effectiveness of the school in teaching sustainability, the students’ occupational preferences and perspectives, and their sentiment about three common farming systems in the Cerrado of Tocantins, i.e., agribusiness, family farming, and agroecological farming, and their opinion on the business relationships among the three systems. Even though our study confirmed the effectiveness of school-work alternation models in transferring sustainability practices from school to home farms, it also revealed farming students’ poor understanding of the systemic definition of sustainability. Students defined sustainable and unsustainable farms with different perspectives and evaluation criteria, most of them referring to environmental indicators such as the way materials are used, whether the natural environment is protected, and whether biodiversity is preserved on the farm. There is a discrepancy between students’ occupational preference and their prevalent sentiment about family farming, agribusiness, and agroecological farming. While more than half of them would accept to work on an agribusiness farm, significantly more students have a positive sentiment in favor of family farming and agroecological farming than agribusiness farming. The three farming systems, however, are not perceived as contending or isolated but as partnering businesses, featuring low competition and high cooperation rates. Our study contributes to a broader appreciation of the Brazilian students’ perception of farming sustainability in the Cerrado of Tocantins and helps environmental education programs improve their effectiveness in transferring sustainability.

Alienação ocupacional e a saúde mental de estudantes universitários

Abstract Mental health, especially in the youth, has been a prevailing concern in recent years. University students are a particularly high-risk population for mental health problems. Changing perspectives in the field of mental health present the opportunity to explore this concept through an occupational justice lens – specifically that of occupational alienation. Through a brief review of relevant literature, this critical essay will explore the relationship among the concepts of alienation from both a sociology and occupational science perspective, and consider the insights that may be obtained through application of this concept to understanding the mental health of university students. The use of an occupational justice lens provides an opportunity for an alternative perspective when considering factors potentially contributing to the mental health problems in this population.

Functional independence in left dorsolumbar congenital kyphoscoliosis – An occupational therapy perspective : A case report

Congenital scoliosis is caused by early embryologic errors in formation of vertebral column. The goal of treatment is to improve the children's quality of life and to give them the best chance to develop as an independent adult. The objectives were to assess the effects of occupational therapy (OT) intervention on balance, gait, and activities of daily living (ADL) in a case of congenital scoliosis. A 14-year-old young female studying in 10th standard diagnosed as left-sided dorsolumbar congenital kyphoscoliosis with apex of scoliosis at 11th dorsal segment level was assessed. She presented with lower extremity spasticity, imbalance, and scissoring gait. Assessment was done using the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Modified Barthel Index (MBI). Immediate postoperative OT intervention was started inclusive of balance and gait training. Significant improvement was observed on BBS score preoperatively before therapy from score 11 to post therapy score 50 after therapy was initiated and MBI score preoperatively 11 to post therapy 20 after ADL training at 8 months of therapy.

Professional Behavior Attributes: A Survey of Occupational Therapy Faculty Perspectives

Professionalism in occupational therapy has been challenging to define due to differing values and behaviors across contexts and professions. There is a difference between how occupational therapy students and faculty view and comprehend professionalism suggesting that occupational therapists may not have an established sense of professionalism when entering the health care field for the first time. The study's purpose was to examine occupational therapy faculty’s perceptions of essential professional behavior attributes that students should possess to succeed in occupational therapy practice. This study utilized a survey methodology to anonymously collect opinions from 150 occupational therapy faculty members across the United States regarding professional behavior attributes essential for entry-level occupational therapy education. Researchers found that the five most frequently observed professional behavior attributes in occupational therapy students were empathy, enthusiasm, being personable, having a positive attitude, and responsibility. The top seven most important professional behavior attributes were being clinically competent and ethical, having communication and interpersonal skills, and being adaptable, responsible, and empathetic. The results of this study indicate that occupational therapy faculty perceive that many vital attributes contribute to professionalism within the occupational therapy field and that teaching professionalism is an integral part of occupational therapy education. This study contributes to the current literature of defining professionalism within occupational therapy to better equip occupational therapy students entering into practice.

Self-Care: An Occupational Therapy Student Perspective

Health professional students, including occupational therapy students, report increasing rates of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout while completing their academic programs of study. Self-care is one potential solution to this crisis, as engagement in evidence-based self-care practices has been found to improve the health and well-being of various student populations; however, the self-care practices of occupational therapy students have not been well studied. Therefore, this study explored how occupational therapy students understand and practice self-care, and how self-care correlates to perceived stress. Twenty participants engaged in a focus group and completed a 72-hour time diary. Focus group results indicated that participants highly valued their self-care practices, reporting that self-care improves their well-being, is a skill that must be developed, and plays a critical role in occupational therapy practice. Time diaries revealed that the most frequently recorded self-care occupations were sleeping/napping, meal preparation/eating, and watching television and other streaming services. Total time spent in self-care practices ranged from 9-55 hours, and duration of self-care was not found to correlate with perceived stress or demographic variables. Results demonstrate that the type of self-care activities in which students engage may be more beneficial than duration of self-care alone. Students may benefit from further skill development in self-care to improve their current and future well-being. Occupational therapy educators have the opportunity to assist in developing this skill through intentional programming.

The Relationship Between Civil Pilots' Resilience, Psychological Well-being and Work Performance

Resilience refers to individual's extant thinking process and behavior of choice which may protect the individual from suffering of robust stress or tragic events and smoothly get back to his/her life tracks. Resilience, thus, may be regarded as coping skills that the individual being equipped with in work organizations to improve his/her work performances from an occupational psychology perspective. That is, resilience may be defined, in part, as developing a constellation of traits to do individual's job well. For employees in high-stress and -risk aviation industry, it is of specialty crucial to assess the relationship between their resilience (i.e., stress coping skills), psychological well-being, and work performance. As such, individualized resilience-boosting program may be developed per the thorough understanding of this relationship. In the present study, 191 civil pilots were invited to participate in our questionnaire-filling survey. Based on factor analysis methods, six top-ranking factors encompassing 1) inner strength resource, 2) inner positive energy, 3) inspired growth, 4) solution by help, 5) interpersonal resource, and 6) spiritual religion were obtained for constructing our resilience scale. A total of three factors, including 1) work engagement, 2) promotion, and 3) good-teams, were used for establishing our work performance scale. Likewise, five factors consisting of 1) positive emotions, 2) commitment, 3) good relationships, 4) life meaning, and 5) achievement were employed to serve as our psychological well-being scale. The reliability tests revealed by Cronbach's alpha for the resilience, the psychological well-being, and the work performance scales ranged from .93 to .73. Using the correlation analysis methods, participants’ resilience scores were positively associated with their psychological well-being (r=.85, p<.001), and work performance (r=.71, p<.001) scores. Moreover, each factor (aspect) of the resilience was correlated with each factor (aspect) in the psychological well-being and work performance scale in a positive manner (all ps<.001). Furthermore, pilots’ age seems to affect their two aspects, inner positive energy and spiritual religion, of resilience with paradoxical increments of these two factor scores in the eldest (age ≧60) group. Surprisingly, pilots with college degree had greater scores in inner positive energy and inspired growth of resilience as compared to pilots with advanced degree. Self-motivated ab initio group had greatest solution by help scores, while military ab initio group exhibited greatest spiritual religion scores in the three groups of ab initio training backgrounds. These results, taken together, prompt us to draw a tentative conclusion that our resilience scale may serve as a sensitive and reliable tool for not only providing civil aviators a convenient self-appraisal battery but concomitantly suggesting his/her mental health and well-being.

Post-Pandemic Office Work: Perceived Challenges and Opportunities for a Sustainable Work Environment

The widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work due to COVID-19 calls for studies that explore the ramifications of these scenarios for office workers from an occupational health and wellbeing perspective. This paper aims to identify the needs and challenges in remote and hybrid work and the potential for a sustainable future work environment. Data collection involved two qualitative studies with a total of 53 participants, who represented employees, staff managers, and service/facility providers at three Swedish public service organisations (primarily healthcare and infrastructure administration). The results describe opportunities and challenges with the adoption of remote and hybrid work from individual, group, and leadership perspectives. The main benefits of remote work were increased flexibility, autonomy, work-life balance and individual performance, while major challenges were social aspects such as lost comradery and isolation. Hybrid work was perceived to provide the best of both worlds of remote and office work, given that employees and managers develop new skills and competencies to adjust to new ways of working. To achieve the expected individual and organisational benefits of hybrid work, employers are expected to provide support and flexibility and re-design the physical and digital workplaces to fit the new and diverse needs of employees.

Eradicating slave labour by 2030: the challenge of worker health surveillance.

Eradicating modern slavery is a relevant scientific, social, and institutional challenge issue. Indeed, efforts are being made globally to understand, map, and eradicate contemporary slavery as a target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, little attention has been given to the Occupational Health Surveillance (VISAT) in the strategies and struggle against exploiting relationships. In order to fill this gap, the paper discusses contemporary slave labor (CSL) and its specificities in Brazil from an occupational health surveillance perspective. We initially highlight the link between CSL, occupational health, and occupational health surveillance (VISAT). We then present three VISAT challenges to addressing CSL: the challenging task of characterizing economic sectors and populations most affected; identifying determinants, risks, and effects on health; and strengthening occupational health practices and services to trigger specific actions regarding formation, information, and intervention in regions of high CSL prevalence. We conclude that Occupational Health Surveillance can play an essential role in the emancipation of workers engaged in slavery relationships.

Students, Stress, and the Pandemic: An Occupational Health Perspective for Nursing Education.

Nursing students have high risk factors for stress, and the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic underscored weaknesses in mitigating nursing student stress and supporting well-being. Occupational health uses proven frameworks and perspectives for understanding and mitigating health risks, and promoting worker wellness. Nurse educators can draw from this knowledge to implement system-level changes in support of a safe and healthy learning environment. This article describes the use of an occupational health strategy to create healthier educational environments. Applying occupational health concepts to nursing education supports honest appraisal of mental health dangers to students, offers keys to managing student health risks, and provides effective approaches for communicating risks with mitigation tactics. An occupational health and safety perspective creates a lens through which nursing stress resulting from the pandemic can be viewed and managed creatively using a holistic approach to mitigate harm from stress in the nursing educational setting. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(12):674-679.].

The future of IEQ in green building certifications

Although indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and human health have been on the agenda of the green building industry, a new emphasis is being placed on building features that explicitly promote the experience of occupants. However, evidence of the performance of green-certified buildings from the occupant perspective remains inconsistent, with numerous questions on how to effectively design, assess and promote ‘healthy buildings’. Focusing on the key IEQ categories of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics, this paper synthesises emerging knowledge related to IEQ and health; identifies research and practical challenges that may impede the performance of green-rated buildings; sets the foundations for researchers and green rating system developers to capture immediate and long-term opportunities; and proposes a new framework for green-certified buildings. The envisioned future of green buildings will need to be based on a thorough knowledge of the building and its users, their inter- and intra-individual variability, their spatiotemporal localisation, their activities, their history of exposures, together with a capacity of anticipation of the likelihood of future events and preparedness for them. A balanced, integrated, consideration of these factors can provide the basis for more effective green building certification systems. <em><strong>Practice relevance</strong></em> The Covid-19 pandemic has focused attention on the importance of IEQ and highlighted the limitations of prevailing practice for promoting human experience, health and wellbeing. Most critically, the good intentions of project planning are often not reflected in real-world conditions, and establishedbest practiceshave not kept pace with advances in research. This paper provides a critical synthesis of the literature on the effectiveness of green building ratings systems for human experience. It identifies limitations and practical opportunities for improvement in the design and application of rating tools. These observations present specific, actionable, opportunities to improve the design and operation of green building rating systems. Rating system developers and practitioners can use this information to better align design intentions with outcomes. Explicit consideration is needed for differences in individual preferences, spatial and temporal variabilities of IEQ factors, occupant exposure history, and other factors impacting IEQ.