Why Occupational Therapy?: A Qualitative Analysis of Incoming Students’ Reasons for Entering the Profession

Insight into students’ views and understandings of what occupational therapy (OT) practitioners do and what a career will be like can shed light into how the profession is socially perceived. Additionally, this knowledge can be useful for recruitment, retention, and curriculum design, especially for addressing misunderstandings and inaccurate perceptions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the narratives of incoming OT students when asked why they chose to enter the profession of OT. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze sociodemographic data, and then thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data about why participants wanted to become occupational therapists. The qualitative analysis of narratives from 67 incoming OT graduate students resulted in five themes: (1) understandings of disability; (2) caring/helping; (3) a healthcare profession – but different; (4) perceptions of day-to-day practice; and (5) past exposure to OT. The findings from this study identifies that many people choose a career in OT specifically because of its unique blending of artistry and science as a health profession. However, many of these individuals enter the profession with misperceptions of disability and barriers to occupational participation that clients/patients face. Faculty can use the findings of this study to recognize students enter the academic world with many misperceptions, including of living life as a person with disability. Additionally, the findings may identify approaches for leveraging what makes OT distinct in the eyes and minds of students exploring and considering careers in healthcare.