Role-Emerging Fieldwork at Community Agencies: An Exploration of Self-Efficacy,Personal Transformation,and Professional Growth

Abstract

Date Presented 04/06/19

OT students are faced with a variety of challenges in today’s diverse healthcare system. Educators need to ensure there are placements that best prepare them for these demands. Role-emerging fieldwork offers a distinct opportunity to both meet curricular requirements and afford students the chance to develop skills unique to this type of placement. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to examine the experiences of OT students who engaged in a role-emerging fieldwork.

Primary Author and Speaker: Amy Mattila

PURPOSE: Today’s healthcare system requires that practitioners acquire a level of confidence, flexibility, and personal growth that enables them to treat a diverse and complex clientele. It falls on academic programs to prepare these students for any given situation and develop programming that will allow them to engage in meaningful, real life scenarios. Role emerging fieldwork, or placements where there is no occupational therapy (OT) presence, allows students the opportunity to develop the necessary skills and professional development experiences to be well rounded entry level practitioners.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of OT students who participate in role emerging fieldwork and to identify the areas of growth as a result. Research questions included: What effect does a role emerging fieldwork experience have on the self-efficacy of OT students? What personal transformation do OT students identify over a 12-week role emerging fieldwork? What professional transformation do OT students identify over a 12-week role emerging fieldwork?

DESIGN: The design is a pre/post-test, mixed method design. A convenience sample of 36 second year MOT students completed quantitative data collection, using the Student Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ).From that group, a purposeful sample of 12 participants were studied for qualitative experiences, who were randomly selected from each of the role emerging sites.

METHODS: Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews and reflective journals with pre-determined prompts. Quantitative data was collected through the use of a preexisting instrument, the Student Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ). The SCQ is a 40 item Likert scale that assesses the student in the domains of professional competence, communication, adaptability, innovation, risk-taking, supervision, and clinical practice.Data was analyzed using a paired samples t-test and the results gathered gave insight into the student’s report of confidence.

RESULTS: The extent of the findings include 12 of each pre- and post-fieldwork interviews, a total of 108 journals over the course of the semester, and 36 participants’ pre- and post-fieldwork SCQ surveys.

Three themes aligned with the first research question, to further understand self-efficacy and role emerging fieldwork: perceived success and failure, impact of interactions and collaboration, and importance of feedback. Associated results from the SCQ indicate significant change in initiation and risk-taking (p = .017),communication skills (p = .016), and seeking out/providing supervision (p = .000).

The second research question encompassed three themes related to the personal growth of students during this rotation. Students described experiences such as challenging the unfamiliar or unknown and the role of flexibility and creativity throughout the course of the fieldwork placement. Associated results from the SCQ indicate significant change in adaptability (p = .000) and innovation (p = .000)

The final research question included two themes that reflected the students’ professional transformations: self-awareness and redefining the profession. Student confidence also significantly improved in the following areas:clinical skills (p = .002) and professional competence (p = .012).

CONCLUSION: The findings in this study indicate role emerging fieldwork had a significant influence on students’ self-efficacy, personal, and professional growth. From an academic and professional perspective, the additional benefit of having the ability to use role emerging fieldwork as a transformative experience is invaluable. The findings of this study can allow educators across masters and doctoral programs to begin to understand and implement similar role emerging placements.

References

Andonian, L. (2013). Emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and occupational therapy students’ fieldwork performance. Occupational therapy in health care, 27(3), 201-215. https://doi.org/10.3109/07380577.2012.763199

Derdall, M., Olson, P., Janzen, W., & Warren, S. (2002). Development of a questionnaire to examine confidence of occupational therapy students during fieldwork experiences. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(1), 49-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/000841740206900105

Mattila, A. M., & Dolhi, C. (2016). Transformative experience of master of occupational therapy students in a non-traditional fieldwork setting. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, 32(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/0164212x.2015.1088424

Thew, M., Edwards, M., Baptiste, S., & Molineux, M. (Eds.). (2011). Role emerging occupational therapy: Maximising occupation focused practice. John Wiley & Sons.