Professionalism…What Is It Anyway? Researching and Communally Defining an Elusive Social Construct in Occupational Therapy Programs

For its entirety, the profession of occupational therapy’s understanding of and approach to the development of professionalism in occupational therapy students (OTS) has remained relatively static and based largely on a White, Western, and male-dominated understanding of professionalism and how it manifests in academic environments. This understanding and approach are highly problematic in that it does not take into account the kaleidoscope of cultural differences that require occupational therapy practitioners to show up in different ways based on the needs and preferences of clients, communities, and populations. This research qualitatively analyzed existing documents containing references to professionalism utilized in one occupational therapy program. This was done to identify the program’s communal understanding of professionalism and whether this understanding is an accurate reflection of the values held by the faculty collective rooted in the context of a small university in the Northeast. Results indicated that existing documents did not accurately reflect these values. Findings created space for the development of a new statement that better represented how this program defined professionalism as manifested via ways of doing and being. Additionally, the results highlighted the need for the statement to include the students’ perspectives as well in an effort to fully embody the idea of a communal statement. The results of this research invite occupational therapy programs to analyze their current definition and understanding of professionalism to ensure that it is an accurate reflection of communal values and that it is contextually situated.