W F OT U P D AT E
WFOT COVID-19 Survey Results
A survey on COVID-19 conducted by WFOT between April and June 2020 generated 2750 responses from 100 countries. Results indicate that the pandemic had a widespread impact on the delivery of occupational therapy practice, education and research. This was identified to be due to a lack of preparedness, restrictions in service access, redeployment, frequently changing working conditions, demands of new technology and limitations in resources such as additional space for physical distancing, workplace protocols and personal protective equipment. Reports on the study are available here: wfot.org/ resources/the-impact-of-covid-19-foroccupational-therapy-findings-andrecommendations-of-a-global-survey
International Year of Health and Care Workers
WFOT welcomes the designation of the year 2021 as the International Year of Health and Care Workers by the World Health Organization. As the global health workforce continues to work hard in responding to the impact of COVID-19, the celebration of the International Year of Health and Care Workers in 2021 provides an opportunity to build a stronger and more responsive health system by learning from the pandemic experience. You can read about the lessons learned by WFOT from the pandemic and recommendations for the future in this public statement, which is available in multiple languages, including Arabic, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish: wfot.org/resources/ public-statement-internationalyear-of-health-and-care-workers
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F E AT U R E
Reflections from the
Ellice Willcourt, Course Coordinator and Lecturer Occupational Therapy, Flinders Univ
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hen teaching occupational therapists, I often reflect on my early understanding of occupational therapy, and how this has evolved over the many years since I graduated. Over this time, I have answered the age-old question, “What is occupational therapy?” more times than I care to remember. With experience, I can now give a clear description. However, I remember the anxiety I felt when asked this question as a student on placement—and stuttering out an answer. When I started teaching first-year occupational therapy students, I knew I wanted to help them feel confident when discussing their profession. Introduction to Occupational Therapy is a foundational topic in the Flinders University Bachelor of Health Science/Master of Occupational Therapy degrees. In this topic, students learn about the diversity of contemporary occupational therapy practice, and how the history of the profession has shaped current practice. Students are introduced to the Australian Occupational Therapy Competency Standards and asked to consider how this will inform their future clinical practice. Over the semester, the students challenged themselves to broaden their understanding of occupational therapy and demonstrate their knowledge each week in class—the first and only faceto-face topic they completed all year! The following are two abridged assignment submissions from students in their first year of studying occupational therapy in 2020. Students were asked to discuss why they chose to study occupational therapy, and what excited them about the profession and their future practice.
Giving Opportunities Rather Than Prescriptions Phoebe Siviour, First Year BHS/ MOT Student, Flinders University My journey to finding a purposeful career has been a rocky one. I graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor in Primary School Education, but with dwindling passion for the profession. I postponed my registration, instead finding work in the disability employment field. My aim was to better educate myself on an aspect of teaching that I felt underprepared for—differentiating for, and supporting, students with disability. I loved that job as it fulfilled my career goal of helping others. However, there were limited opportunities for professional development within the field, and I felt that I still had scope within myself to be challenged. So, with new understanding of my professional capabilities, but limited knowledge of occupational possibilities, I went in search of a profession where I would be able to help others, challenge myself daily, and that has a versatility in the day to day that would keep me on my toes. I conducted a few fruitless searches into other allied health careers, until one fateful conversation with
