The experiences of a student-led special interest group by occupational therapy students at Curtin University

Introduction: Tertiary education courses for health disciplines prepare students for work in a professional environment. However, there is difficulty in covering all content areas due to a saturated curriculum. As a result, in occupational therapy, a gap exists between current course curricula and the knowledge required for a full scope of practice. This gap can be bridged with student-led special interest groups as a form of continuous professional development to provide extra learning opportunities for students. This study aimed to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of a student-led special interest group for occupational therapy students at Curtin University, Australia. Methods: The study utilised a concurrent triangulation mixed-method design. Pre- and post-session surveys collected data on students’ experiences from three student-led special interest group sessions. A focus group explored themes regarding implementing the special interest group sessions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographics, and Mann-Whitney U Tests were conducted on pre- and post-session data sets. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the focus group data. Results: Students perceived that the student-led special interest group could effectively build their competence and confidence in the specific occupational therapy topics presented. Students perceived the student-led special interest group as an accessible means of continuous professional development and provided suggestions for future implementation. Conclusion: This study's findings can be used to implement student-led special interest groups in other occupational therapy curricula, provide feedback to guide their implementation, effectively target student participation and encourage further research into the relevance of such groups in other disciplines.