Exploring Cultural Competence amongst OT Students

Area of Science:

• Occupational therapy
• Health sciences education
• Cultural studies

Background:

• Effective occupational therapy hinges on therapist-client communication.
• Language and cultural disparities can impede therapeutic communication.
• Cultural competence is crucial yet under-researched in occupational therapy students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore final year occupational therapy students' cultural competence.
• To understand students' perceptions of their cultural competence regarding language and culture.
• To investigate the influence of cultural competence on student practice.

Main Methods:

• Explorative qualitative study design.
• Nonprobability purposeful sampling of 21 final year undergraduate students in South Africa.
• Three focus groups (6-8 students each) and thematic analysis using inductive reasoning.

Main Results:

• Cultural competence significantly influences occupational therapy intervention.
• Language and cultural factors can positively or negatively impact rapport building.
• Client-centeredness and intervention effectiveness are affected by cultural competence.

Conclusions:

• Cultural competence is a vital, multifaceted aspect of occupational therapy practice for students.
• Addressing language and cultural differences is essential for effective student training.
• Further research is needed to enhance cultural competence education in occupational therapy.