Occupational Therapy in Australia: A Changing Profession and Changing Attitudes

Graham, Jenny; Allen, Felicity

doi:10.1177/030802269005300907

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…[28][29][30][31] Associated labour force planning has suffered from a lack of sufficiently detailed statistics that allow the examination of distribution, education, training and other labour force issues. [28][29][30][31] Associated labour force planning has suffered from a lack of sufficiently detailed statistics that allow the examination of distribution, education, training and other labour force issues.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Little systematic analysis on the Australian occupational therapy labour force has been carried out. [28][29][30][31] Associated labour force planning has suffered from a lack of sufficiently detailed statistics that allow the examination of distribution, education, training and other labour force issues. [32][33][34] Without good data, accurate projections cannot be made and policies will not be developed to avoid recurring problems in the supply of occupational therapists.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Issues Affecting Australia’s Rural Occupational Therapy Workforce

Millsteed

2000

Australian J Rural Health

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The unequal distribution of health workers across Australia in favour of urban areas affects the provision of effective health services to rural and remote communities. Additional pressures on the current and future supply of occupational therapists may arise from a restructuring of the health labour force and demographic changes in the age structure of the population. Projections made on the basis of these data indicate that employment growth for occupational therapists will create a demand for 9600 therapists in 2005, or 79.9% more than the number of occupational therapists employed in 1994. Factors such as reductions in the level of immigration and the number of people of working age, and a diminishing population of school leavers to fill student places in universities will make it difficult to meet the projected demand for occupational therapists. Occupational therapy labour force planning suffers from a lack of detailed data on under-serviced areas. Such data are critical for clarifying the magnitude of the projected discrepancy between future demand and supply needs for occupational therapists in rural and urban areas in Australia.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Issues Affecting Australia’s Rural Occupational Therapy Workforce

Millsteed

2000

Australian J Rural Health

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“…It has been well reported that the supply of trained therapists in Australia, Canada and the United States is lagging behind the present and anticipated future demand and that this has led to critical manpower shortages in occupational therapy (Graham and Allen, 1990;Salvatori et al, 1992;Trickey and Kennedy, 1995). Price (1993) suggested that occupational therapists and occupational therapy students hold a negative image of the psychiatric field.…”

Section: Staff Recruitment and Retentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thirty-two per cent of the respondents indicated leaving the profession altogether, with poor staffing (40%) given as the major reason for occupational therapists leaving their current job. Graham and Allen (1990) conducted a study examining the working conditions for the profession in the various types of employing institution in Australia. Three hundred and twenty-one practising therapists and 114 non-practising therapists were surveyed.…”

Section: Staff Recruitment and Retentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work‐related stress and occupational therapy

Lloyd

King

2001

Occupation Therapy Intl

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Occupational stress and burnout have been studied extensively in the human services. It has been suggested that healthcare professionals in particular are at risk of stress owing to the caring nature of their work. Articles related to occupational therapy and work-related stress were reviewed in regard to practice in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden. Although the empirical literature is relatively weak for occupational therapy, it has been argued that occupational therapists in health care share risk factors with other healthcare professionals. These risk factors include repeated exposure to distress and difficult behaviour, prolonged interventions and uncertain outcome. Issues such as professional status, staffing issues and the nature of the profession have been identified as additional risk factors for occupational therapists. However, empirical studies that enable burnout rates of occupational therapists to be compared with those of related occupational groups suggest that this may not be the case. Occupational therapists may in fact be protected from some stress and burnout factors. Further research is recommended to clarify the nature of stress experienced by occupational therapists and to identify both risk and protective factors characteristic of the profession.

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“…This requires information that is up‐to‐date, comprehensive and that accurately describes the characteristics of the current workforce (Giordano, 1996). The profession needs to know what the workforce does and how the pattern of practice may be changing, what the age pattern of the profession is, what educational qualifications therapists hold and how they maintain currency of knowledge and skills, how long therapists stay in practice and what the patterns for re‐entry after periods of absence are, the extent of the use of overseas‐qualified therapists, identification of changing professional roles within the health industry and distribution of the occupational therapy workforce (Allen et al , 1988; Mirkopoulos & Quinn, 1989; Graham & Allen, 1990; AIHW, 1995; Palastagna, 1995).…”

Section: Workforce Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Australia’s occupational therapy workforce: Jobs for the future

Millsteed

1999

Aus Occup Therapy J

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The forces that affect the economic, technological and industrial structure of Australia in the future will also affect its occupational and educational structures. The number of people participating in the education system is expected to grow, but at a slower rate than over the past decade, and the proportion of the workforce with a qualification is expected to reach a historically high level by the year 2005. Workforce modelling projections indicate that more highly skilled occupations will have strong employment growth over the next decade. It is estimated that, in 2005, the demand for occupational therapists will represent an increase of 79.9% of the number working in 1993–94. However, the accuracy of this projection is based on a macro‐analysis of data from various sources and does not account for any analysis of factors internal to the profession that may affect its occupational structure or employment growth. The paucity of occupational therapy microworkforce data has been noted by national workforce planning agencies and regular national workforce collections will start in 1998. Inclusion of macro‐ and microfactors into a comprehensive occupational therapy workforce planning framework is essential to the development of appropriate response strategies that address demand and supply issues for occupational therapy jobs in the future.

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Occupational Therapy in Australia: A Changing Profession and Changing Attitudes

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Issues Affecting Australia’s Rural Occupational Therapy Workforce

Issues Affecting Australia’s Rural Occupational Therapy Workforce

Work‐related stress and occupational therapy

Australia’s occupational therapy workforce: Jobs for the future

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