Weighted issues of importance versus curricular content between undergraduate students and practitioners of occupational therapy and healthcare administration

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which 15 issues that practitioners of occupational therapy and healthcare administration weigh as important, for the efficient and effective delivery of healthcare services in the United States, compare to the respective knowledge levels provided by undergraduate programs for both professions. A second purpose was to evaluate the concept that both professions would work together more efficiently and effectively if each had a better working knowledge of the other's profession. The goal was to determine if significant differences existed between the issues practitioners weighted as important and the level of knowledge students received in their respective training programs. The study employed a self reporting 16 question survey using a 5 point Likert scale. Both practitioner study populations had to have at least one year of experience, and only senior students in both professional training programs were surveyed. Results of the data analysis revealed that there were perceived weighting differences between the two groups. The issues of knowledge of occupational therapy; occupational therapists knowledge of business; professional development and identity; communication skills; team work skills; healthcare business practices; managed care and reimbursement; moral development and ethics; leadership skills; mentorship; customer service skills; salary issues; clinical skills; clinical reasoning; professional autonomy; and the administrator/clinician relationship were found to demonstrate statistically significant differences. The results indicated that professional education programs for both professions may wish to survey their students and/or examine their curricular content to include more content coverage on the issues for which differences were found. This would reduce the differences and thus, could better prepare occupational therapy and healthcare administration students to enter practice.