Experiences and Perceptions of Interprofessional Collaboration Among Spanish Optometrists and Occupational Therapists: A Cross-Sectional Study.
María José López-de-la-Fuente, Víctor Berdejo, Laura Gonzalo-Ciria and 2 others
PMID 42576423WHAT IT FOUND
A survey of 138 Spanish optometrists and 148 occupational therapists found that collaboration between the two professions is rare, informal, and dependent on individual initiative.
Where it does occur, satisfaction is high, but clear referral pathways and organisational support are largely absent.
Key findings
01Collaboration is most common in paediatrics and vision therapy but remains limited in low vision and acquired brain injury rehabilitation: 77 of the 131 participants who worked with ABI had no prior collaborative experience with the other profession.
02Where collaboration does occur, satisfaction is high (median 4, mode 5) and practitioners report improved practice, but it depends on individual initiative rather than organisational support, and formalisation tools score low (median 2.5).
03Occupational therapists perceived optometrists as more protective of professional boundaries (median 4 vs 2, p = 0.002), and non-collaborating OTs reported not understanding the optometrist's role in the rehabilitation team.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Convenience and snowball sampling means the 138 optometrists and 148 OTs may not represent the full Spanish workforce; a post hoc margin of error of ±5.77% was estimated but representativeness cannot be assumed. The IPC indicator sections (Sections 4 and 5) were adapted from a validated questionnaire but were not separately psychometrically validated for this study, so the D'Amour indicator scores should be interpreted with caution. Self-reported data are subject to social desirability bias, and voluntary participation may have introduced response bias. The cross-sectional design captures a snapshot and cannot distinguish between networking, coordination, collaboration and teamwork, which differ in task integration and role interdependence. G2 (non-collaborating) may include professionals who do not serve clients who would benefit from both professions, potentially inflating the size of the non-collaborating group. Findings are specific to the Spanish context and may not transfer to other countries. Data were not tied to particular organisations, so setting-specific differences (hospital vs private clinic vs aged care) may be missed.
Declared interests
No funding was received for this manuscript. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the high satisfaction scores (median 4, mode 5) or the positive quotes from collaborating professionals as evidence that OT-optometrist collaboration improves patient outcomes. This is a survey of practitioner experiences and perceptions, not an outcome study, and the convenience sample of 138 optometrists and 148 OTs recruited through professional associations and social media may not represent the full Spanish workforce. The IPC indicator sections were also not separately validated for this study, so the D'Amour indicator scores carry additional uncertainty.