Experiences of ‘virtual’ occupational therapy service delivery in Wales

IF 1.3 4区医学 Q3 REHABILITATION

British Journal of Occupational Therapy Pub Date : 2023-11-20 DOI:10.1177/03080226231208050

L. Ingham, Jan Burke, Catherine Purcell

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Abstract

COVID-19 accelerated the implementation of virtual working at pace, which carries the risk of missed opportunities for shared learning across organisations and services. This study therefore investigated the experiences of ‘virtual working’ among occupational therapy (OT) staff and students in Wales. The objectives were to establish the meaning of virtual working for occupational therapists (OTs), identify the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the technologies used to support virtual working and explore the specific contextual factors that impact on service delivery. An online questionnaire was completed by 191 registered and unregistered OT staff and students working in Wales, and 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted in a convergent mixed methods design. The questionnaire data confirmed that the use of virtual working has increased and impacts all areas of service delivery. The semi-structured interviews identified three themes: the art of OT, keeping doors open and looking forward. Virtual working can improve access to services, but one size does not fit all and its use in person centred care should be carefully considered. Virtual working should not compromise high quality service provision and the risks of virtual working to staff’s mental and physical health needs to be considered.

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威尔士提供 "虚拟 "职业治疗服务的经验

COVID-19 加快了虚拟工作的实施步伐，这有可能错失跨机构和跨服务部门共享学习的机会。因此，本研究调查了威尔士职业治疗（OT）工作人员和学生对 "虚拟工作 "的体验。研究的目的是确定虚拟工作对职业治疗师（OTs）的意义，识别用于支持虚拟工作的技术的优势和劣势，并探索影响服务提供的具体环境因素。191 名在威尔士工作的注册和未注册职业治疗师和学生填写了一份在线问卷，并采用聚合混合方法设计进行了 11 次半结构式访谈。问卷数据证实，虚拟工作的使用有所增加，并影响到服务提供的各个领域。半结构式访谈确定了三个主题：OT 的艺术、保持开放和展望未来。虚拟工作可以改善服务的获取，但不能一刀切，在以人为本的护理中使用虚拟工作应慎重考虑。虚拟工作不应影响高质量服务的提供，而且需要考虑虚拟工作对员工身心健康造成的风险。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Occupational Therapy REHABILITATION-

CiteScore

2.20

自引率

15.40%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： British Journal of Occupational Therapy (BJOT) is the official journal of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. Its purpose is to publish articles with international relevance that advance knowledge in research, practice, education, and management in occupational therapy. It is a monthly peer reviewed publication that disseminates evidence on the effectiveness, benefit, and value of occupational therapy so that occupational therapists, service users, and key stakeholders can make informed decisions. BJOT publishes research articles, reviews, practice analyses, opinion pieces, editorials, letters to the editor and book reviews. It also regularly publishes special issues on topics relevant to occupational therapy.