Resilience Program for Dominican Occupational Therapy Students

The purpose of our program is to implement a resilience program that is specifically designed for and targeted towards occupational therapy students. There are not enough available resources that accommodate the unique challenges, stressors, and experiences of occupational therapy students in school in order to cultivate resilience. One study concluded that occupational therapy students experienced higher levels of stress than in nonprofessional school (Everly et al., 1994). They also found that the levels of stress increase as the students progress through the occupational therapy curriculum. The importance of developing resilience in healthcare students is recognized and current research shows success in current resilience programs, however, more research is encouraged due to small sample sizes (Delany et al., 2015). Our program aims to provide a valuable resource to foster resilience not only as students but as future occupational therapists. We performed a needs assessment via a google form survey that was sent out to Dominican University OT students. The needs assessment revealed that students were interested in resilience-focused workshops, resources, and opportunities for social support. Therefore, we are currently designing a resilience program with these elements that supports students in building the skills necessary to thrive in their education and careers by fostering resilience. We will conduct a workshop that will focus on self-compassion and positive self-talk, which contributes to building resilience. We are in the process of building a website that will be compiled of different resources for students to access year-round, whether or not they have attended our program. Our work will add further knowledge about how to build resilience through different resources for students in occupational therapy programs along with current occupational therapists. Our project will promote the value of resilience program development to support OT students and practitioners