Exploring how Australian occupational therapists and physiotherapists understand each other’s professional values: implications for interprofessional education and practice

Abstract

This article provides insight into the values Australian occupational therapists and physiotherapists consider essential for their practice and the values that they perceive as important for each other. Findings from a study that employed the Delphi technique to identify the values occupational therapists and physiotherapists consider essential for their practice were compared with interview results that provide insight into how these professionals perceive one another's values. The results from this comparison indicate that occupational therapy and physiotherapy participants have limited knowledge of each other's values. This is evidenced by participants only identifying a minority of the values considered essential within the other profession and not identifying many of the values that guide daily practice within the other profession. The results hold implications for interprofessional education and practice, where knowledge of the values of other professions in the team is essential. To enable interprofessional collaboration, professions need to make their values explicit and provide their students, practitioners and educators with opportunities to learn about their own values and the values of other professions.

Knowledge about and Attitudes of Interdisciplinary Team Members toward Occupational Therapy Practice: Implications and Future Directions

“…Therefore, as suggested by Alotaibi et al [18], it is vital that the Kuwait University incorporates changes within the curricula of its various health-related departments to improve the understanding of knowledge bases and values of these professions. The addition of IPE courses within the health care curricula was also perceived as crucial element internationally [9, 19-22]. It is important, however, to note that the application of IPE in the health care curricula requires practical and structured learning experiences of learning about, from and with other health care students [21, 23].…”

“…For example, as occupational therapists and physical therapists work closely with each other in various practice settings [25], their professional knowledge and values are not always clear to one another which could result in conflict related to service provision and therefore influence the success of interprofessional collaboration [19]. As a result, both professionals are encouraged to strive to make their knowledge and values explicit to each other to support interprofessional competence and enable interprofessional collaboration.…”

“…Additionally, as a prerequisite to the success of such IPE curricula and to ensure effective collaborative practice among students as well as future health care professionals, they ought to have a clear representation and understanding of their own professional knowledge and values during their interprofessional team functioning [19, 21, 22]. For example, as occupational therapists and physical therapists work closely with each other in various practice settings [25], their professional knowledge and values are not always clear to one another which could result in conflict related to service provision and therefore influence the success of interprofessional collaboration [19].…”

Conceptualising professionalism in occupational therapy through a Western lens

“…Within the literature, professionalism has been discussed from multiple approaches including: concrete and conceptual components (Robinson et al, 2012), reflexive dialogue requiring reasoning processes to navigate internal and external contextual pressures (Kinsella et al, 2008;Mackey, 2014;Robinson et al, 2012), a dynamic concept influenced by society (Bryden et al, 2010;Khalili et al, 2014;van Mook, de Grave, et al, 2009), and the listing of specific elements and attributes (Aguilar et al, 2013(Aguilar et al, , 2014Bossers et al, 1999;Bryden et al, 2010;Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, 2012;Holmes & Scaffa, 2009;Kasar & Muscari, 2000;Occupational Therapy Australia, 2010;Peloquin, 2005;Robinson et al, 2012;van de Camp et al, 2004).…”

“…Current literature highlights the need for profession-specific understanding of professionalism due to the inherent differences between professions, such as values, legal frameworks, and ethics (Aguilar, Stupans, Scutter & King, 2013;Bryden et al, 2010;McNair, 2005;Robinson et al, 2012). This diversity accounts for a degree of the variability that exists between professions and why professionalism 'definitions' may not be transferable, thus, reinforcing the need for explicit discussions of professionalism within the field of occupational therapy (Aguilar, Stupans, Scutter & King, 2014).…”