Publication Year
2025
Faculty Advisor
Kristin Jones, PhD, OTR/L
Program
Occupational Therapy
Abstract
Occupational therapists may experience weakened professional identity when their practice settings’ cultures, policies, resources, or interdisciplinary teams do not support occupational therapy’s core philosophies and values. Each practice environment has different workplace cultures and resources that influence an occupational therapist's ability to provide quality service for their clients. For example, when an occupational therapist works in a practice setting that does not support a core philosophy like occupation-based practice, they may experience a blurring of roles and responsibilities with other professionals. Overlap and confusion of responsibilities can lead to unclear expectations about their unique contribution to the client’s care. Additionally, working in a practice setting with limited environmental resources, such as tools and materials for occupational performance, can limit an occupational therapist’s use of occupation and their ability to provide client-centered care. To summarize, where an occupational therapist works can impact their professional identity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the differences in levels of professional identity of occupational therapists who work in different practice settings. Methods: This study utilized secondary data from two previous survey studies, with a combined sample size of N = 367. This study conducted a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the differences in professional identity levels among occupational therapists practicing in four different types of settings: inpatient (n = 95), outpatient (n = 91), schools (n = 96), and community-based settings (n = 86). Participants’ level of professional identity was measured using the Professional Identity Questionnaire. Results: The results indicated that the effect of practice setting on levels of professional identity was statistically significant, F (3, 363) = 3.147, p = .025, η2 = .025. Tukey’s post hoc analyses revealed that occupational therapists working in acute care and acute rehabilitation settings had lower levels of professional identity than did occupational therapists working in community-based settings, p = .029. Conclusion: This study extends existing research that suggests inpatient care is a challenging setting for developing occupational therapists’ professional identity. These results may a) support occupational therapy academic instructors, fieldwork educators, managers, and practitioners to create more opportunities to develop, strengthen, and maintain professional identity growth, and b) strengthen occupational therapy managers' awareness of the importance of fostering professional identity development in their practice setting.