Embedding research within occupational therapy pre-registration training: A concept mapping study engaging staff and student voices.

Data were collected from a single UK university before the pandemic and before a new degree apprenticeship programme launched, so findings may not transfer to other institutions or other student groups. Only thirteen participants completed the sorting task, and staff were overrepresented among sorters compared to students, which may skew how themes were grouped. Students were not involved in the statement reduction stage, so decisions about which brainstormed ideas to keep or discard were made by staff and authors alone. Limited demographic data were collected, so it is unclear whether ratings differed by age, gender, home versus international status, or year of study. The study reports perceptions of importance and current success, not measured changes in student research capability or patient outcomes, so it cannot show whether embedding research this way improves practice.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was internally funded by the department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria University, the same institution whose programmes were being evaluated.

Do not read the four clusters or twelve improvement targets as evidence that a particular teaching method produces better occupational therapists. This study captured what students and staff at one university thought was important and what they felt was missing at a single point in time. It reports perceptions, not measured outcomes, and the authors themselves note that other concurrent changes likely influenced culture alongside the strategy this map informed.