Health Promotion Training Needs of Occupational Therapists in Wales

For over a decade literature has highlighted the need for health promotion to become integral to a health professional’s role (World Health Organisation, 1986, Wilcock (1998), College of Occupational Therapists (COT) (2008), Needle et al 2011). Seymour (1999) concluded that the pre-registration curriculum for occupational therapy should prepare graduates to incorporate key health promotion messages into their practice and this was supported by COT (2008). This paper will present the findings of research project funded by Public Health Wales, to examine the readiness of occupational therapy practice educators in Wales to incorporate health promotion within their practice. The study will also explore how occupational therapy practice educators impart the importance of health promotion to their students and identify future training needs. Predominantly quantitative in design this project will form the basis of an action research study to increase the confidence of occupational therapists in the use of evidence-based health promotion within their practice. Purposive sampling has identified an anticipated 200 potential participants. Following ethical approval a Bristol On-line questionnaire will be distributed via an email link to all practice educators meeting the inclusion criteria. Quantitative data analysis will be presented using descriptive statistics with graphs and tables. This will highlight demographics, current practice and training needs in relation to health promotion. The qualitative data will be presented via thematic analysis (if appropriate) and presented to supplement the quantitative data