Sustaining the heart of practice: illuminating wellbeing in occupational therapy education
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Abstract
In American culture, the term “wellbeing” carries various meanings and has a multitude of definitions across disciplines, reflecting its broad and multifaceted nature. At the very foundation of the occupational therapy (OT) profession is the belief that humans are occupational by nature and that “achieving health, well-being, and participation in life through engagement in occupation is the overarching statement that describes the domain and process of occupational therapy in its fullest sense” (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020, p. 5). While wellbeing is central to OT, the profession has not yet fully realized the full scope and potential of occupational wellbeing as a key aspect of health promotion, disease prevention, and fundamental human right, nor has wellbeing content been consistently integrated across OT curricula. While a few entry-level OT programs are beginning to address this broad topic, many do not yet have formal education in place to support student wellbeing during their journey to becoming occupational therapists, resulting in practitioners with limited capacity to manage their own wellbeing during the stressful early years of their careers. This reality prompts critical reflection for OT educators to collectively ask the questions: How can we effectively center wellbeing in OT education? How do we teach wellbeing content to our students? Finally, how do we help students build the skills, habits, and mindsets they'll need to sustain both their own wellbeing and that of future clients?
To address this gap in OT curricula, this doctoral project describes the development, implementation, and evaluation plan of a new course at Appalachian State University focusing on wellbeing, OT 5200: Client and Practitioner Wellbeing. All Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) students at Appalachian State University are enrolled in this first-year, first-semester, one credit-hour course where they learn about and discuss perspectives on wellbeing from various disciplines, and engage in evidence-based, experiential learning related to wellbeing. Informed by OT, psychology, and learning theories, OT 5200: Client & Practitioner Wellbeing offers students the opportunity to gain knowledge and actively engage in the process of becoming reflective, resilient occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs). Short-term outcomes include measuring students' functional understanding of wellbeing, which will inform future iterations of the course. Long-term outcomes include contributions to the foundational understanding and application of wellbeing within OT education and clinical practice.
This new course has the potential to improve MSOT students’ understanding and application of occupational wellbeing for themselves and their clients. The core message of this doctoral work is a gentle yet vital call for OT educators and administrators to advance the integration of wellbeing in teaching, research, and practice, as wellbeing is the essence that makes life worth living, and occupation is how we make it possible.
Description
2025