Transitioning out of crisis – the future for occupational therapy education

Covid 19 changed the way education was delivered as lockdowns were imposed across the UK. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate occupational therapy students during the pandemic. These experiences have been analysed to reflect on what academic staff have learnt from moving the delivery of the course on line and inform how the programme can be delivered moving forward.

A sample of n=165 undergraduate occupational therapy students across three year groups completed online Qualtrics surveys at three timepoints during the pandemic with a timepoint for final year students to capture their experience of being impacted by the pandemic across all their undergraduate degree programme. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed (Daly-Lynn et al 2022).

Students’ experience of learning emerged under themes of being, doing, becoming and belonging (Hitch et al 2018) with related sub themes. Within each theme students described their experiences of self-care, online learning, preparing for the future workforce and the need to belong to a community and peer learning

Creating a strong community of learning, with a focus on student wellbeing, sense of belonging and preparing students to use digital technologies within their practice are key to successful graduates (HCPC 2022).