Influences on students' decisions to study occupational therapy at a regional Australian university: A mixed methods study.
Emma Kleindienst, Tamara Wanklyn
PMID 42530280WHAT IT FOUND
A survey of 134 OT students at one regional Australian university found 80.6% did not understand what occupational therapists do before enrolling.
Personal connections were the main way they learned about the profession. This is a workforce and visibility finding, not a clinical one.
Key findings
0180.6% of students reported they did not have a good understanding of the role and scope of occupational therapy practice before deciding to study it.
02Personal interest in the subject (80.2%) and recommendations from family or friends (71.0%) were the two most frequently selected influences on the decision to enrol; 49.3% first heard about the profession through family or friends and 48.5% knew someone already studying it.
03The most commonly selected financial supports enabling the decision to study were the HECS interest-free government loan (81.3%) and part-time or casual employment (78.4%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Single university in one regional area of Australia; findings may not transfer to metropolitan institutions, other states, or other countries. The sample is very homogeneous: 93.3% female, 76.9% Anglo-Australian, 75.4% aged 18–24, 78.4% neurotypical, 84.3% without a disability. The authors themselves note this limits generalisability to students from different cultural backgrounds, genders, and ages. All participants were already enrolled OT students. The barriers that prevented other prospective students from applying are not captured — this is a study of those who made it in, not those who did not. Year-level data were deliberately not collected to protect anonymity, so it is impossible to tell whether first-year and fourth-year students experienced the decision-making process differently. The survey and interview tools were reviewed by a small number of faculty members but were not validated across multiple institutions or populations before use. International students may have participated but were not specifically identified or analysed as a subgroup. The qualitative phase had only 13 interviews, which limits the depth and range of perspectives captured.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. No funding source is named in the text provided. The first author was a fourth-year honours OT student at the same university where the study was conducted, and the second author is a member of the university's OT faculty.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 80.6% figure as evidence that occupational therapy students are unprepared or that the degree programme is inadequate. It is a self-reported perception among current students at one university, not an objective measure of knowledge, and it reflects the profession's low public visibility rather than a gap in the students' education. The sample is also overwhelmingly White, female, and under 25, so it does not represent the full range of people who might consider studying OT.