New graduate occupational therapists feelings of preparedness for practice in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

This study provides the first international comparison into the feelings of competence and preparedness for practice of new graduates of occupational therapy from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Given the importance of competencies, such as evidence-based practice to the progress of the profession, there is a need to further explore methods to increase feelings of preparedness in these areas.

Job Club: A Program to Assist Occupational Therapy Students’ Transition to Practice

“…In an online survey of 178 Australian and 53 New Zealand occupational therapy graduates, only 17.1% of Australian students and 8.5% of New Zealand students stated they felt prepared to enter the workplace on graduation. The majority of the respondents (66.4%) reported feeling only somewhat prepared, and a further 10.3% reported feeling somewhat unprepared or not prepared at all [2].…”

“…The transition period typically spans from a student's final academic year to the end of his/her first year of practice. This period has been identified as a challenging and stressful time and often involves the re-defining of the self through a process of intense professional and personal growth [1][2][3][4]. The tension of translating classroom education to the working environment is particularly evident during this period and issues that may arise include a lack of role clarity, a perception of insufficient supervision, and a lack of confidence in professional skills [3,4].…”

“…There is limited discussion in the literature of specific strategies that may be employed to assist graduates in their transition to practice [1][2][3][4]. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of occupational therapy graduates' need for support through this transition period, and to describe be less stressful than student life [3,4].…”

Valuing complex and diverse career pathways: the career trajectories and career-related choices of early career practitioners

“…In terms of definitions of key terms, for instance, the phrases 'early career professional', 'new graduate', 'graduate', 'newly qualified', 'novice', 'young', 'beginner' and 'newly licensed' are utilised to describe ECPs. Furthermore, there is limited consistency regarding length of time since graduation for ECP research participants, with some studies including practitioners with years of postqualification work experience varying from less than one (see, for instance, Pack 2015;and Read & Laschinger 2015), one (Jack & Donnellan 2010), two (Laschinger 2012), three (Laschinger et al 2016;Pfaff, Baxter, Jack & Ploeg 2014;Rudman & Gustavsson 2011;and Smith, Andrusyszy & Laschinger 2010), four (Huntington, Gilmour, Neville, Kellett & Turner 2012), five (Djukic, Kovner, Brewer, Fatehi & Greene 2014;Gray et al 2012;Hewitt, Lackey & Letvak 2013;and North, Leung & Lee 2013), and ten (Ulrich et al 2010), to up to fifteen (Clark, Smith & Uota 2013). Other researchers (see, for instance, Clendon & Walker 2012;and Flinkman, Laine, Leino-Kilpi, Hasselhorn & Salantera 2008) define ECPs as practitioners aged under 30 years.…”

“…As a consequence, ECPs may be more competent in certain skills than in others and feel "inadequately prepared" (Rudman & Gustavsson 2011, p.293). Gray et al's (2012) study of early career occupational therapists, for example, found that these practitioners felt most competent incorporating interpersonal elements such as maintaining confidentiality and communicating both verbally and non-verbally, but least competent in activities that required them to demonstrate or evaluate practical clinical skills. A study of graduate nurses within their first three years of practice found they commonly experience difficulties liaising with senior staff and resolving conflict with colleagues (Pfaff et al 2014).…”