Professional Confidence: Conceptions Held by Novice Occupational Therapists in South Africa

Abstract

This study aimed to explore how novice occupational therapists conceptualized professional confidence. Professional confidence is a dynamic personal belief that matures over time. It is closely linked to both competence and professional identity ensuring fitness for practice. Although professional confidence has been defined and a number of its attributes have been identified, how practitioners understand or conceptualize the phenomenon is not clearly understood. Eight novice occupational therapists undertaking their community service year in South Africa during 2011 participated in the study. Data, collected during semi-structured interviews, were analyzed using phenomenographic methodology. From the participant's descriptions, three qualitatively different ways of understanding professional confidence emerged from the data, namely knowing as an occupational therapist, believing you are an occupational therapist and being an occupational therapist. The outcome space was also described. The study did not purport to gauge whether the novice therapists were in fact confident. As professional confidence is a maturing self-belief, the findings are limited to novice occupational therapists. The findings contribute to a growing understanding of professional confidence in occupational therapy. Further research is needed in terms of what informs the conceptions held by novice therapists and how professional confidence can be assessed in graduates on completion of their educational programme.

Novice occupational therapists: Navigating complex practice contexts in South Africa

“…Competence is dynamic and developmental rather than being a destination (Epstein & Hundert, ). The finding that some participants had only one occupational therapist in their team, confirms earlier reports that Community Service therapists are sometimes required to work alone (Holland et al .). This may become the experience of more therapists as the government shifts Community Service practitioners further away from better‐resourced metropolitan areas (Department of Health, ).…”

“…In such contexts, the absence of appropriate supervision and guidance may hinder the transition from student to therapist (Hummell & Koelmeyer) and adversely affect patient care (Nemutandani, Maluleke & Rudolph, ). The South Africa National Department of Health considers Community Service health professionals as competent for practice and thus do not provide specific mentorship, support or development programmes (Holland, Middleton & Uys, ). Competence is dynamic and developmental rather than being a destination (Epstein & Hundert, ).…”

Factors associated with professional confidence in Japanese public health nurses: A cross‐sectional survey

“…Self‐confidence in psychology is considered as one of the aspects of personality development (Cramer, ; Shih‐Chieh, Yin‐Hui, Chai‐Jung, & Yu‐Ting, ). Self‐confidence based on practice in health professionals in occupational therapy is defined as professional confidence, which is different from self‐confidence; professional confidence is a dynamic, maturing personal belief held by a professional or student (Holland, Middleton, & Usy, , ).…”

Resilience in occupational therapy students

“…Their stressors are reported to be associated with feelings of being overwhelmed and confusion due to the high programme demands, being underprepared for university level education, as well as complex academic staff-student relationships. The complexity of specific prescribed subjects such as anatomy and physiology, poor professional identity, low professional confidence and limited professional recognition have also been reported as contributing to their stress 5,11,[13][14][15][16][17] . Other high stress demands result from the 1000 hours of hands-on-clinical experience prescribed as essential for their clinical competence 14,18 .…”