Premium
Occupation and occupational therapy: Knowledge paradigms and everyday practice
Author(s) -
Wilding Clare,
Whiteford Gail
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.2006.00621.x
Subject(s) - occupational therapy , narrative , action (physics) , salient , psychology , occupational science , clinical practice , reflective practice , narrative review , qualitative research , nursing , psychotherapist , medicine , medical education , sociology , developmental psychology , political science , social science , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , law
Aims: This article presents some preliminary findings from an action research study into the everyday practice of a group of occupational therapists working in a large metropolitan hospital delivering a range of acute services.Methods and Findings: Narrative data gathered from 10 individual interviews were analysed through numerous iterative cycles to reveal salient themes. These include epistemological tensions associated with working in a hospital environment, antagonistic reasoning processes, overinclusive descriptions of practice, and communication challenges.Conclusions: The findings suggest that occupational therapists in acute settings may experience challenges in describing occupational therapy and engaging in occupation‐based practice. This is because of a range of factors, including, but not limited to, the paradigmatic conflict that arises between a profession informed by occupation and a predominantly biomedical setting. However, through in‐depth, reflective processes undertaken collectively within a supportive community of practice milieu, significant changes in everyday practices can be activated.