Practice education in the UK: A comparative cross-sectional investigation of key stakeholders’ perspectives

Abstract

Practice education is a core requirement of occupational therapy education that is key to the development of the profession’s future. Changing educational and financial landscapes across the UK causes challenges to the provision of sufficient high quality placements. Providing placements requires input from multiple stakeholders from different, and at times diverging, contexts. This research was completed to generate up-to-date information about how key stakeholders view different roles and responsibilities, consider the value of accreditation programs in supporting educators, and what changes could be made to the way practice education is developed and supported. The study used cross-sectional and action-oriented learning methods to generate qualitative data about the perspectives of participants. Online surveys and telephone interviews were completed by three different populations (professional practice tutors, those who provide or support the provision of practice education experiences, and current pre-registration occupational therapy students). Workshops based on soft systems methodology (Checkland and Poulter 2006) were completed with mixed participant groups. A thematic analysis approach outlined by Nowell et al (2017) was completed, followed by a comparative analysis to highlight both shared and divergent perspectives among participants. Key descriptive and thematic results will be presented, along with the results of the comparative analysis. The results of this research can be used by those involved in providing practice education at local, regional and national levels to help understand the perceptions of stakeholder groups and engage with these in an informed way to help develop high quality practice education experiences. Ethical Approval provided by Queen Margaret University’s Research Ethics Panel (RCOT_PE_REVIEW_190918_V. 1).