Facilitating Rehabilitation of Disciplined Practitioners: A Qualitative Analysis of Insights From Stakeholders in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

When determining penalties for professional misconduct, penalty guidelines and principles usually require disciplinary bodies to consider rehabilitation to safe practice where appropriate, as well as the need to ensure public safety. However, little is known in Aotearoa New Zealand as to the barriers and facilitators of rehabilitation to safe practice. Our aim was to explore the views and experiences of rehabilitation in the teaching, health and legal professions in Aotearoa New Zealand to gain insight into the factors that facilitate such rehabilitation. We conducted five one‐on‐one interviews with disciplined practitioners and three focus groups with key stakeholders involved in ordering, monitoring and delivering rehabilitative conditions and analysed the data thematically. Four key thematic principles were developed that were necessary for rehabilitation of practitioners, namely: (1) instil pro‐rehabilitation culture, institutions and processes; (2) craft conditions that restore and retain practitioners; (3) promote practitioner engagement and (4) create feedback mechanisms. These thematic principles underscore that professional discipline occurs as a system of interwoven institutions, systems, processes and individual actors. Key opportunities to operationalise these principles exist in improving communication across levels and stages, providing guiding principles and information on rehabilitation to key stakeholders, strengthening rehabilitation services and promoting a culture of rehabilitation. In doing so, disciplinary systems can balance public protection and safety with restoring practitioners to safe practice.