Has undergraduate education prepared occupational therapy students for possible practice in palliative care?
BACKGROUND
It has been argued that the unique nature of the occupational therapy role in palliative care (PC) warrants dedicated attention in undergraduate programmes to improve the confidence of occupational therapy graduates to work in this setting. Nevertheless, little is known about either the present PC education or the preparedness of graduates to work in this field. In addressing each of these issues, this study also sought information to guide the development of occupational therapy-specific undergraduate teaching resources.


METHODS
Survey information was gathered from two participant groups: (i) six occupational therapy schools from Australia and New Zealand and (ii) 24 occupational therapists employed in PC in Australia and New Zealand. Two different surveys were used, targeting issues specific to each of these two groups. Where possible, data were analysed quantitatively, whereas open-ended questions were interpreted thematically.


RESULTS
Occupational therapy schools reported 2-10 hours of PC-specific content and requested teaching resources specific to the occupational therapy role. Less than half of the clinicians (45.8%) recalled receiving undergraduate content in PC, and 75% reported having felt unprepared to work in this field. Clinicians who had received PC-specific content at university felt more prepared to work in this field than those who had not. Several recommendations for teaching PC were made.


CONCLUSIONS
The link between the extent of PC education received and perceived readiness to work in this field, together with the relatively small amount of dedicated undergraduate PC-specific content, supports the need to optimise teaching in this unique field.
Meredith
Pamela Joy
PJ
Division of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia. p.meredith@uq.edu.au
D016390:Allied Health Occupations; D001315:Australia; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013334:Students