ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Occupation is a core concept of our profession, yet little is understood about how therapists use occupation in clinical practice. PURPOSE: This study explores frontline clinicians' experience with occupation-based practice in a large academic health sciences centre. METHODS: A qualitative constructivist study was conducted using thematic analysis, following in-depth interviews with 12 occupational therapists. FINDINGS: Participants described the existence of two realities: Occupational therapy as they felt it should be practiced and as it actually is practiced. When the two were incongruent, participants experienced a meaning gap, which was expressed through four themes to reveal that a personal sense of occupation guides practice and transforms the meaning of the job. IMPLICATIONS: The exploration of personal occupational meaning through conscious self-reflection and co-creation of meaning with clients and their health care teams may serve to bridge the meaning gap.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Job Satisfaction , Occupational Therapy , Humans , Interviews as TopicABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of waiting for persons who reside in long-term care settings. Parse's theory of human becoming provided the nursing perspective and a qualitative descriptive-exploratory design was used. The 45 participants were residents in three different long-term care facilities affiliated with a university. Data were gathered through interviews. Three emergent themes formed the following unified description: The experience of waiting is intensifying ire while diversionary immersions reprieve amid unfolding becalming endurance. The themes are discussed in relation to participants' descriptions, the human becoming theory, and related literature. Recommendations for practice and further research are presented.