Browsing by Author "Nkansah, Opoku Eric"

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    Exploring the transition from student to clinician by the first cohort of locally trained occupational therapists in Ghana
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Nkansah, Opoku Eric; Van Niekerk, Lana; Jacobs-Nzuzi Khuabi, Lee-Ann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. Occupational Therapy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Background : The nature of a new clinician’s transition from student to clinician is a significant determinant of the ease or difficulty of the journey to professional competence. Transition into practice for the new graduate has been described as a complex experience characterised by periods of stress and anxiety. In Ghana, after several failed attempts to establish occupational therapy services, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the University of Ghana started an undergraduate programme in Occupational Therapy in 2012 (the first of its kind in the West African sub-region) to educate occupational therapists locally. This exploration of the experiences of transition into practice for the first cohort of locally trained occupational therapists was important because they worked autonomously and in a self-directed manner in their first year of practice after graduation, in a country where occupational therapy had not been established. Aims and objectives: The aim was to explore the experiences of the first cohorts of locally trained occupational therapists during transition from being students to clinicians within the first year of their practice in Ghana. The objectives were to explore the challenges and facilitators of their transition, the coping strategies employed to effectively manage the challenges they encountered and their experiences of continued professional competence. Methodology: The research comprised of three stages; stage one was to develop a systematic scoping review protocol to explore the factors that affect new clinicians’ transitions into practice. In stage two, the scoping review was conducted to synthesize literature published in the last two decades on the transitions of new clinicians into practice. The focus was to determine the challenges and facilitators of new clinicians’ transitions from student to clinician and the evidence-based coping strategies that can be employed to ease the transition. Stage three was a phenomenological study aimed at exploring the transition from students to clinicians by the first cohort of occupational therapists in Ghana. Two in-depth interviews were done with each participant. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data into four overarching themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of Stellenbosch University prior to conducting this study. Results: In the scoping review, 562 studies were initially identified, relevant data was extracted from 24 studies that met the inclusion criteria and were analysed to form this review. Four overarching themes emerged namely: systems and structures, personal capacities, professional competence and mediating processes. Each theme revealed the barriers, facilitators and coping strategies of transition into practice among new health graduates. In the phenomenological study, four themes emerged: ‘Being “new” in a new profession’, ‘Introducing occupational therapy into a medical model health system’, ‘Personal and professional competence,’ and “The future is bright”. New graduates found continued professional competence activities essential for successful transition into practice. Conclusions and recommendations: New graduates needed assistance to translate knowledge into practice. New graduates lacked adequate supervision given the lack of practicing occupational therapists to fulfill supervisory roles. What was evident from the findings is that, well-organized collaboration between undergraduate university educators, leadership and management of health facilities, other health professionals and the new graduates can facilitate a successful transition into practice. Future research is needed to explore the transition of other cohorts of occupational therapy graduates to explore if they had similar experiences. This will allow for a more holistic understanding of students transition into practice to generate further suggestions to enrich occupational therapy education and practice in Ghana.