Supporting Students in Relation to Racism: Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Educator Perspectives

Background. Racism is ingrained within the Canadian healthcare system, resulting in health inequities for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) service users, healthcare workers, and students. Occupational therapy students spend a large amount of their training with fieldwork educators within these environments. Purpose. Explore the experiences of occupational therapy fieldwork educators in relation to supporting students witnessing or experiencing racism during fieldwork education. Method. Using an interpretive description research design, with a semi-structured interview guide, we conducted individual and group interviews with nine occupational therapy fieldwork educators with a minimum of two years of clinical experience. Data analysis included data immersion, independent coding by multiple team members, and grouping and collapsing data to develop categories. Findings. All participant educators discussed racism with students, but had varying levels of comfort doing so. The participants used reflection as a tool to support students learning about racism. Participants were "self-taught" regarding racism and wanted help to develop their own, as well as their students' skills in responding to racism. Conclusion. Health organizations and universities need to work in an integrated way to prioritize anti-racism education for all occupational therapy students and practitioners, and to develop multipronged systems for the disclosure and addressing of racism.