Year one : thriving not surviving
Deborah May , Ryan McClure and Paul Wilkinson on supporting the wellbeing of newly-qualified occupational therapists
© GettyImages / higyou
The first year of occupational therapy practice is a time of excitement , anxiety and pride , but also one of significant change and challenge ( Hollis and Clarke 1993 ).
The current evidence base suggests that newly-qualified occupational therapists ( NQOTs ), face challenges such as : unmet expectations of practice ; meeting the perceived expectations of others ; developing interpersonal relationships ; the need to develop professional identity and confidence ; and belief in self-competence ( Hollis and Clarke 1993 ; Tryssenar and Perkins 2001 ; and Holland , Middleton and Uys 2013 ).
While there is limited evidence highlighting the challenges that NQOTs face during this period of transition , the question of how to support NQOTs ’ emotional wellbeing as they navigate through these times remains .
This was a question the ‘ Year 1 : Thriving not Surviving ’ project , funded by the Elizabeth Casson Trust , explored . The overall project aim was to create freely-available self-coaching resources addressing some of the challenges NQOTs identified as most difficult to overcome . The project comprised three phases : the formation of a coproduction group ; a campaign of engagement through social media ; and the production of the resources .
Occupational therapist and personal coach Dr Lynne Goodacre and writer Rob Young led the project .
Occupational therapists in their first year of practice were invited to submit an expression of interest to join the project team . This was promoted through OTnews and social media .
The project team comprised 10 NQOTs from different areas of clinical practice and backgrounds ; each project member was able to contribute their own challenges , insights and opinions from personal experience .
The social media campaign was structured initially to engage the wider occupational therapy community with the project . The team sought to be as creative as possible , posting questions , polls , videos and images all relating to wellbeing .
Twitter , Facebook and Instagram were used to gain a significant and wide-reaching community . Initially , fun but insightful questions were posed , such as : What three words sum up your first year of practice ? And , if your first year of practice was a song what song would it be ?
Once a community started to build around the project , the team posed more insightful questions such as : In year one , what one thing made the biggest difference to your wellbeing ? When in year one did you think , I can ’ t do this ? What got you back on your feet ?
Weekly blogs , written by the team and volunteers from the wider NQOT community , helped also to generate discussion around the question areas . The team also hosted two # OTalks . The first invited participants to recall and discuss challenges to their wellbeing during their first year in practice .
The project began at the start of the pandemic . The team found great support in sharing their COVID-19 experiences during team meetings . This led to a second # OTalk , which extended this conversation and provided the chance for the wider community to come together and share this experience of the impact of COVID-19 on their practice and wellbeing .
Two virtual coffee meetings were held to discuss people ’ s experiences of their first year in practice – one for NQOTs and the other for clinical supervisors of NQOTs . This enabled deeper ‘ face-toface ’ discussions about some of the issues the project had identified and how others had experienced and overcome challenges during their first year in practice .
The support of NQOTs and their engagement with the project was incredible , with many people sharing their experiences . Pulling all the insights from the community engagement together led to the identification of key areas of challenge to wellbeing and the production of six self-coaching resources .
In the format of ‘ pocket guides ’, each resource explores a different aspect of wellbeing . They provide evidenced guidance and structured tools to support users to think about and explore some of the
30 OTnews January 2021