Occupation-Centred Practice and Supervision: Exploring Senior Occupational Therapists’ Perspectives

Introduction: Occupation-centred practice is core to contemporary occupational therapy; however, knowledge and implementation of occupation in practice vary. New graduate occupational therapists find implementing occupation-centred practice challenging, partly due to the influence of senior occupational therapists. However, little is known about senior therapists' views, knowledge, and use of occupation-centred practice and the impact this has on new graduates. The aims of this study were to explore senior occupational therapists' perspectives on and use of occupation-centred practice and the extent to which they influence the occupation-centred practice of the new graduates they supervise.

Methods: Interpretative phenomenology was used as the research design. Ten senior occupational therapists in Australia were purposively recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews, which we transcribed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data and develop themes.

Findings: Five themes were discovered from the data: together, but apart; a link between knowledge and identity; navigating different cultures; making up for what is missing; and good supervisors. The themes revealed participants' varied knowledge and use of occupation-centred practice, the influence of practice context, and the way supervision impacted on the practice of new graduates.

Conclusion: Senior occupational therapists valued occupation-centred practice, but their understanding and implementation of it varied. Participants acknowledged that they held great power to influence new graduates' use of occupation-centred practice through supervision. Consequently, if occupation is not central to supervision, this could perpetuate the ongoing challenges of delivering contemporary practice.