Occupational therapy admissions: professionalization and personality

Specific characteristics of occupational therapy students were examined before and after matriculating through a master's of occupational therapy educational program to see if any characteristics changed during the didactic portion of the program and to see how specific characteristics could be determined using noncognitive variables in occupational therapy education admissions.

This study used a quantitative pre- and post-test design, incorporating volunteer students to take the CPI 260® personality test. All participants signed consent forms prior to the first administration of the CPI 260®. The final tally included 14 occupational therapy students.

Twenty-five of the 26 characteristics on the CPI 260® were not found to change significantly over time. Only 1 characteristic was found to be significant (p ≤ 0.05), and that was a lower median score on "achievement via conformance." This was considered to be a positive result, because the profession needs less conformity and more innovation to enhance its professionalization.

This pilot study provides a reasonable indicator that health care professional educational programs should consider the use of noncognitive variables for admissions if they wish to bring individuals into the professions who have specific characteristics. Admission committees can identify specific characteristics they desire and then identify activities that demonstrate that characteristic. A tool to assist in identifying core professionalization activities among OT school candidates is presented.