TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing professional identity of first-year occupational therapy students with the community-academia student tutoring program
AU - Tal-Saban, Miri
AU - Zaguri-Vittenberg, Shahar
AU - Weintraub, Naomi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Introduction: Delayed professional identity of occupational therapists inhibits successful transition from student to professional. One of the objectives of development of the Community–Academia Student Tutoring (CAST) program is to encourage professional identity formation among first-year undergraduate occupational therapy students. It focuses on developing competence in communication and professional knowledge through a learning-community setting while interacting with individuals with disabilities, thus enhancing students’ self-reflection abilities. Methods: Mixed-method design assessing change before and after participation among 193 students, in competence components essential for professional identity, and factors supporting its formation. Open-ended questions assessed the students’ perceived contribution of the CAST program. Results: Significantly higher competence in knowledge about people with disabilities and relating to them; increased sense of belonging to a learning community and self-reflection abilities compared to before. Relationship with a person with disability and belonging to a learning community predicted 25.4% of the variance in perceptions of program contribution. Central in the students’ experience were development of self-reflection abilities and interpersonal relationship skills, and learning occupational-therapy concepts through meeting people with disabilities. Conclusions: First-hand relationships with people with disability and self-reflection in a structured learning-community setting, may help develop first-year students’ communication skills and their professional identity as occupational therapists.
AB - Introduction: Delayed professional identity of occupational therapists inhibits successful transition from student to professional. One of the objectives of development of the Community–Academia Student Tutoring (CAST) program is to encourage professional identity formation among first-year undergraduate occupational therapy students. It focuses on developing competence in communication and professional knowledge through a learning-community setting while interacting with individuals with disabilities, thus enhancing students’ self-reflection abilities. Methods: Mixed-method design assessing change before and after participation among 193 students, in competence components essential for professional identity, and factors supporting its formation. Open-ended questions assessed the students’ perceived contribution of the CAST program. Results: Significantly higher competence in knowledge about people with disabilities and relating to them; increased sense of belonging to a learning community and self-reflection abilities compared to before. Relationship with a person with disability and belonging to a learning community predicted 25.4% of the variance in perceptions of program contribution. Central in the students’ experience were development of self-reflection abilities and interpersonal relationship skills, and learning occupational-therapy concepts through meeting people with disabilities. Conclusions: First-hand relationships with people with disability and self-reflection in a structured learning-community setting, may help develop first-year students’ communication skills and their professional identity as occupational therapists.
KW - communication skills
KW - community service learning
KW - practice education
KW - Professional identity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170830939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/03080226231198341
DO - 10.1177/03080226231198341
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85170830939
SN - 0308-0226
JO - British Journal of Occupational Therapy
JF - British Journal of Occupational Therapy
ER -