The experience and role of mentorship for paediatric occupational therapists.
Olivia Jackson, Michelle Villeneuve, Michael Millington
PMID 36112001WHAT IT FOUND
Novice paediatric OTs sought mentors to navigate complex caseloads and reduce isolation.
They valued safe, non-judgemental relationships, often external to their workplace. Mentors helped translate theory to practice and scaffold clinical reasoning, building mentee resilience and confidence.
Key findings
01Mentees reported feelings of inadequacy and isolation due to the complexity of paediatric practice and heavy caseloads, leading them to seek emotional support.
02A safe, non-judgemental relationship was essential for mentees to openly discuss competency concerns, with many seeking mentors external to their organisation to avoid workplace judgement.
03Mentors supported clinical reasoning and theory-to-practice translation by helping mentees break down problems and prioritise intervention, though this process was often ad hoc without a specific framework.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Participants were likely to have positive views of mentorship due to recruitment methods, potentially excluding those with negative or neutral experiences. The study did not measure the actual mentoring skills or clinical knowledge of the mentors, assuming experience equates to mentoring capability. Therapists who had left paediatric practice were excluded, so the study does not address whether mentorship helps retention. The process of mentoring clinical reasoning was described as ad hoc, with no specific framework identified or evaluated.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The research received no specific grant funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that any experienced therapist will automatically be an effective mentor. The study highlights that mentoring clinical reasoning was often ad hoc and lacked a structured framework, suggesting that experience alone does not guarantee the ability to effectively guide novices through complex paediatric cases.