Similar but different: A qualitative study of occupational therapists' transformational experiences during practice education

Introduction

Practice education is a key component in the education of occupational therapists, and yet there is limited understanding of the long-term impact of practice education experiences. This study explored transformational experiences on practice education to better understand their long-term impact. Transformational experiences are those that cause a profound and fundamental change in a person's view of themselves and/or the profession. The aim of this study was to explore the transformational experiences, both positive and negative, of occupational therapists while they were on practice education as students.

Methods

A phenomenological research design was used to understand the lived experiences of occupational therapists who had undergone transformational experiences while students on practice education. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews from 11 participants who had graduated at least 5 years prior to this study. Data analysis was completed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Consumer and Community Involvement

No consumers were involved in this study.

Findings

An overarching theme of similar but different was identified, which recognised that while each experience was unique there were some shared elements: the experiences were challenging, emotionally laden, took time to process and had long-term impacts. Positive and negative experiences were precipitated by a challenge of some kind. Participants experienced a wide spectrum of emotions at the time of the event and for some the emotional response lasted long afterwards. It took time and reflection to process their experiences, and they often required help to develop insights into the experience and its impact. Long-term impacts were experienced personally and professionally.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that students have transformational experiences on practice education. These can be ordinary or extraordinary and therefore unique to each student, making them difficult to predict. The findings highlight the value of practice educators and university educators checking in with students to support them to reflect on and process transformational experiences.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Placements are an important part of educating student occupational therapists. We do not know much about how experiences on placement affect students over time. This study looked at how certain experiences during placements changed students over time. We called these ‘transformational experiences’. That means any event, big or small, that had a strong a lasting effect on the person. We spoke with 11 occupational therapists who had finished their studies at least 5 years ago. They chose to take part because they remembered a powerful experience during their placement. The stories they shared were all different, but they had some things in common. These experiences were hard, emotional and took time to understand. They also had long-term effects. We found that transformational experiences can be both ordinary and unusual. This makes them hard to predict.