Abstract
The first World Federation of Occupational Therapists accredited occupational therapy undergraduate programme of study opened in Kuwait in 2009. To be an accredited occupational therapist, students must undertake 1000 hours of successful practice placements. Practice-based Learning is the context in which students learn how to "be" an occupational therapist in a practice setting and has a pivotal role in the emergence of the occupational therapy profession in Kuwait. Nevertheless, there is currently little knowledge about the experience of Practice-based Learning in Kuwait. As such, this study addresses a gap in the research by investigating the following question: 'What are occupational therapy students' and practice educators' experiences of Practice-based Learning in Kuwait?'To address this question, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis research design was adopted, which employs the concept of the double hermeneutic, to access and understand the participants' lived experiences. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted over two academic years with six Kuwait University occupational therapy students and six practice educators associated with the game university. All 24 interviews were recorded and transcribed, with the second interviews conducted to develop themes on participants' experiences that had emerged from the analysis of the first round interviews.
Three superordinate themes emerged from Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis analysis of the data: differences in perspectives of practices between students and practice educators, Practice-based Learning expectations and responsibilities among practice educators and students, and influencing factors' that affected students' and practice educators' experience of Practice-based Learning.
The findings highlight the nuances of the perspectives between practice educators, their students' learning and experiences on placement, and the wider institution of Kuwait University. Central among the issues raised was the role of Kuwait University in providing adequate support and consistency of guidance and curriculum material to enable practice educators to teach and give feedback to their students.
The key recommendations are that practice educators are likely to benefit from further opportunities to develop their teaching and assessment of student knowledge, skills and attitudes. Both students and practice educators could benefit from more effective collaboration between the practice educators and the university (faculty) with regard to details about roles, responsibilities and expectations. The findings of this study raise implications about how to 'bridge the gap' between practice experience and positive learning experience, and overcome the barriers to successful Practice-based Learning, so that occupational therapy education and practice in Kuwait can be further developed.
| Date of Award | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Sponsors | Kuwait Cultural Office |
| Supervisor | Catriona Khamisha (Supervisor), Emma Green (Supervisor) & Yvonne Robb (Supervisor) |