Design Thinking as a Theoretical Framework to Spark Innovation in Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctoral Projects

Contemporary occupational therapy (OT) practice is situated within healthcare, education, and community-based systems faced with increasingly complex problems. There is therefore a need to develop OT practitioners’ capacity for innovation to influence change. Post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy (PPOTD) students are seasoned clinicians with an understanding of the challenges of everyday practice, combined with an intrinsic motivation for professional growth that led to their return to higher education. Thus, PPOTD students are a sub-population of OT practitioners who are uniquely primed for development as innovators. Despite the prevalence of PPOTD programs in the United States, there is limited literature on this area of OT education. We propose that “design thinking,” a human-centered approach to creative problem-solving, can provide PPOTD students with a structure and process to facilitate innovation in their doctoral capstone projects. The purpose of this paper is to describe how design thinking is applied as a signature pedagogy in an online PPOTD curriculum. This paper will provide OT educators with 1) knowledge of the historical context and supporting evidence for design thinking in health professions education, 2) an overview of the design thinking process for innovation development, 3) a description of how design thinking was applied as a complementary theoretical framework within an online PPOTD curriculum, 4) implications for future research and educational practice, and 5) specific teaching and learning resources.