Experiences of burnout and coping strategies utilized by occupational therapists.

BACKGROUND: Work-related stress and burnout have been found to lead to job dissatisfaction, low-organizational commitment, absenteeism, and high turnover. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the burnout experiences of occupational therapists practicing in Ontario and to describe the practice implications and coping strategies employed. METHODS: Data for this mixed methods study were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, Areas of Worklife Survey, focus groups, and interviews in the hermeneutics tradition. FINDINGS: High levels of emotional exhaustion were reported by 34.8% of participants, high levels of cynicism by 43.5%, and low professional efficacy by 24.6%. Practice issues included excessive demands on time, conflict, and lack of autonomy and respect. Coping strategies included spending time with family and maintaining professional/personal balance, control of work responsibilities, maintaining a sense of humor, and self-awareness/self-monitoring. IMPLICATIONS: This study contributes to understanding the practice challenges for occupational therapists, factors that contribute to therapist burnout, and strategies employed to maintain competent practice.

Introducing the Leadership in Enabling Occupation (LEO) model.

BACKGROUND: Occupational therapy is a broad profession yet access to services remains restricted and uneven across Canada. Access to the potential breadth of occupational therapy is severely restrained by complex supply, retention, and funding challenges. To improve access to occupational therapy, widespread leadership is needed by all practitioners. PURPOSE: This brief report introduces the Leadership in Enabling Occupation (LEO) Model, which displays the inter-relationship of four elements of everyday leadership as described in "Positioning Occupational Therapy for Leadership," Section IV, of Enabling Occupation II: Advancing a Vision of Health, Well-being and Justice through Occupation (Townsend & Polatajko, 2007). KEY ISSUES: All occupational therapists have the power to develop leadership capacity within and beyond designated leadership positions. IMPLICATIONS: LEO is a leadership tool to extend all occupational therapists' strategic use of scholarship, new accountability approaches, existing and new funding, and workforce planning to improve access to occupational therapy.

An agenda for occupational therapy's contribution to collaborative chronic disease research.

BACKGROUND: To meet the needs of adults with chronic diseases, Canadian health care is moving toward more interdisciplinary, collaborative practice. There is limited high-quality evidence to support practice in this area. Occupational therapists can play a significant role in this area of practice and research. PURPOSE: To develop an agenda of priority areas within collaborative chronic disease research to which occupational therapy can make a contribution. METHODS: The project involved literature and Internet review, a consensus meeting with a range of stakeholders, a survey of occupational therapists, and synthesis of findings to create a research agenda. FINDINGS: An interdisciplinary and intersectoral group of stakeholders identified seven main priority areas. One priority is specific to occupational therapy while the remaining six cross disciplines. IMPLICATIONS: The research agenda can support funding applications and encourage interdisciplinary research collaboration to ultimately produce research evidence that can benefit people with chronic diseases.