Occupational Therapy News OTnews October 2018 | Page 34

FEATURE NEWLY QUALIFIED PRACTITIONERS
Overcoming the fear of
stepping into practice
Amie Mowlam-Tett reflects on her experiences meeting students across the
UK and offers advice on taking that first step into employment after graduation
A
s RCOT’s then-education liaison
officer, during the first half of this
year I visited 28 of the 32 universities
in the UK that teach occupational
therapy and spoke to students about taking that
first step into full-time employment.
For a lot of final year students, leaving the
education system and transitioning from a
student on placement to a qualified occupational
therapist brings with it a number of worries and
concerns. I am here to tell you, it is normal to feel
nervous on your first day, to question taking a
rotational post, or to not be sure on which clinical
area of practice you want to go into. And despite
how you think and feel, you are not alone.
The first six months of practice, as described
by Tyssenaar and Perkins (2001), is the ‘euphoria
and angst stage’. Walking through the doors
on my first day at RCOT, I was more angst than
euphoria.
But as I started to get to know the job role
and my colleagues and really settle into the
swing of things it got easier. As Morley (2006)
said, settling into a newly-qualified life is a
complex time, full of learning and adjustment
before you can begin to flourish.
But the line between nervous excitement and
fear can wear thin and leave you feeling like you
are not able to go into practice. I hope by the
end of this piece, you will start thinking about
the value of the skills and experiences you have
gained while at university and start to embrace
both the nerves and the excitement the next
stage in your professional journey brings. different models of practice, activity analysis
and clinical reasoning skills, just to name a few.
You will have also picked up a number
of transferable skills; communication, time
management and professionalism. All of which
add to your occupational therapy toolkit.
The skills that you gain at university will set
you up for your future in the profession. Do not
underestimate the knowledge that you have
and the skills that you have gained. Look at
how far you have come, from finding out about
occupational therapy until now.
If you are stuck in identifying your skills and
knowledge, have a go at mapping yourself
into the career development framework (RCOT
2017). Take a look at the level you are at and
the skills you have gained both inside and
outside of the profession.
Core skills You truly start learning in practice
As a new graduate you will have spent a
lot of time over the last two to four years
learning about the core skills of occupational
therapy. You will have an understanding of
the occupational therapy process, and used
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