Addressing organizational barriers in the Veterans Health Administration to promote occupational therapy practitioners emerging as change agents in non-clinical leadership roles
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Abstract
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is North America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 medical centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care with a varying of complexities, serving nine million enrolled Veterans each year (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2024). The VHA also employs over 2,000 occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs). Although the VHA is the largest integrated health care system in North America and can be debated as the top organization to employ the most OTPs, the VHA has yet to establish a robust career path for aspiring OTP leaders to emerge as change agents. As a result, OTPs can primarily serve in three clinical leadership roles, as there are no non-clinical leadership roles described in the VHA Appendix G14 Handbook (OTP career map). Several studies have critically outline leadership as a growing component in the occupational therapy profession. However, there is a lack of evidence supporting OTPs transitioning from clinical to non-clinical leadership roles, which leaves organizations such as the VHA to identify and determine relevant leadership development implementation and a designed goal structure for occupational therapy career path.
The VHA Occupational Therapy Leadership Development Training program is proposed as an implementation tool to engage key VHA internal stakeholders on the importance of establishing a specific leadership-focused training for OTPs to expand their clinical leadership skillset to other non-clinical roles, such as an Administrative Officer, Director Learning and Education, or even a position on the Executive Board of Directors. In establishing this program and proposing revisions to the current OTP career map, the path-goal theory of leadership, developed by Robert House in 1996, will be the theoretical framework to address the problem outlined in this doctoral project. The main question to be answered is, “To what extent can the OTP population in the VHA expand their clinical leadership skillset to non-clinical leadership roles upon implementing specific leadership development training?”
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International