Factors That Lead Occupational Therapists to Enter Private Practice: An Ongoing Mixed-Methods Design

PURPOSE: There is an identified need for more occupational therapy private practices in order to provide much-needed services within the field. Occupational therapists are not as involved in owning their own practices as other health professionals but are experts in the field, understanding where new ideas and advancement can be implemented, which offers a competitive advantage for opening their own practices and is a primary determinant of success within a business. This study identifies the factors that lead occupational therapists to open a private practice and what makes such practices sustainable. The research question was, What are the factors that lead occupational therapists to open private practices, and what contributes to their sustainability?

DESIGN: This study is a descriptive, mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. Male and female registered occupational therapists who are private practice owners will be asked to participate in the current study until data saturation is reached. The individuals must own or co-own a private practice that provides occupational therapy services and must consider their practices to have been “successful” for a minimum of 1 yr at the initiation of the study. Participants will be recruited via networking organizations and professional connections of the researchers. Potential qualifying participants will be contacted through email. Upon informed consent, an online Likert-scale survey with several short-answer questions will be administered. At the end of the survey, participants can opt to participate in a short interview. Participants who are able to meet through video conferencing will be interviewed by two of the researchers using questions designed to allow for more in-depth responses. Interviews can also be administered in person should the participant prefer.

METHOD: The research has currently completed the survey stage and will begin the interview stage early in 2017. Quantitative data were analyzed by identifying the factors with the most uniformity in responses to isolate which factors were most consistently important. Qualitative data were coded by five coders with 100% interrater reliability. The data were analyzed once to determine the themes and then again to determine the frequency of each theme. The data included two outliers that did not fit into any of the determined themes.

RESULTS: Results in the short-answer section indicate (1) strong themes of addressing insufficiencies in services available and desire for freedom; (2) moderate themes of wanting to excel, funding issues, and ethics; and (3) some themes of family–life balance and job satisfaction. Preliminary results in the Likert-scale section indicate that desire for autonomy, reputation, ethical practice, focus on the greater good, responsiveness to one’s market, choice of employees who align with business values, understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses, and professional growth and learning were the most identified factors in opening and maintaining a private practice.

CONCLUSION: While the study is still ongoing, current data indicate that many private practitioners opened businesses to have the freedom to create a place for occupational therapy to be practiced in the specific way they had imagined. Factors relating to good insight were identified as the most beneficial in maintaining a private practice.

IMPACT STATEMENT: The information gained from the current study is beneficial to both new and existing private practices in identifying and navigating challenges. Research in this area can positively influence the future of the profession by promoting advancement and leadership through the opening of more occupational therapy private practices. Furthermore, increasing the number of occupational therapy private practices could increase awareness of occupational therapy.