Occupational therapy students' experiences and perceptions of culture during fieldwork education

Abstract

Background: Understanding a client's culture allows practitioners to consider the planning of intervention and allows for a client centred approach to be provided. During fieldwork education occupational therapy students can face the challenge of other cultural practices, standards, morals and ways of life coming into conflict with their own.Purpose: There is minimal South African literature discussing the challenges and supporting factors that assist students in becoming culturally competent across cross-cultural settings. This article explored occupational therapy students' experiences of culture, and their perceptions of the barriers and enablers that culture presents during fieldwork education.Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with undergraduate occupational therapy students from a university in Cape Town, South Africa. Data were collected using focus groups with each group of students from first to fourth year and were analysed using thematic analysis.Findings: The two main themes that emerged from the analysis, were: 1) "Culture is easily defined but not easily described", which focuses on the students own understandings and interpretations of culture, and 2) "Is there no 'me' in OT?" which specifically describes students' experiences of culture during fieldwork practice.Implications: The findings of this study questioned whether cultural competence is static but determined that exposure to, positive attitudes towards and self-reflection on culturally diverse experiences are the factors that contribute towards developing cultural competence in culturally diverse situations.

Ational Therapy Interns Experiences of Cultural Competence During Patient Care in a Tertiary Care Hospital: An Exploratory Study

“…Similar ndings have been reported by a study conducted by Inge Sonn & Nikki Vermeulen (2018) [5] , where the main theme derived from the analysis was, culture is easily dened but not easily described. The participants reported that they faced difculty in communicating with the client due language barrier; i.e.…”

“…The main theme emerged from the analysis was," Culture is easily dened but not easily described". (Inge Sonn and Niki Vermeulen, 2018) [5].…”

Self-Reflection and Measurement of Professional Behavior Growth in Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Students

“…With more significant items in the fieldwork setting than academic, results indicated that students perceived fieldwork prompted greater growth in professional behaviors than did the academic setting, possibly due to real-world experience. Sonn and Vermeulen (2018) also found that fieldwork experiences prompted growth in professionalism, in the area of cultural competence. These authors speculated that exposure, reflection, and attitude accounted for such growth.…”

“…Occupational therapy (OT) educators recognize the need to assist students to progress along a continuum of behavior that leads them toward professionalism. Reflection is often seen as a tool assisting in that process (Adam, Peters, & Chipchase, 2013;Anderson et al, 2014;Brown, Williams, & Etherington, 2016;Smith & Trede, 2013;Sonn & Vermeulen, 2018).…”

Perceptions of Low Income by Canadian Student Occupational Therapists

“…One survey respondent expressed concern about the majority of her classmates coming from middle to upper middle income backgrounds and worried how this may impact her fellow classmates' learning and practice with low income individuals. Graduate programs, specifically occupational therapy programs, often strive for representation of individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences, yet may not provide students with adequate exposure to social and cultural diversity and cultural awareness training (Sonn- De Minck & Vermeulen, 2018). Students who lack understanding of the complexity of their patients' backgrounds and life experiences, such as low income challenges, may be less able to provide effective therapy (Naidoo & Van Wyk, 2016).…”