The LOTUS Project: A Resilience Program for Dominican University of California Occupational Therapy Graduate Students

Occupational therapy graduate students and occupational therapy practitioners experience chronic stress, adversity, and are at risk for burnout (de Witt, Monareng, Abraham, Koor, & Saber, 2019). Building a resilience practice early in the OT career has the potential to assist students in overcoming adversity from chronic stressors that could lead to burnout. We developed the L(OT)US project, a resilience program for occupational therapy students at Dominican University of California that consisted of three components: indoor resilience rest and recovery space, outdoor resilience resources box, and social media resources. e gathered feedback from current occupational therapy students who participated in our program through Google Form Surveys. 38.5% of respondents expressed that the Indoor Resilience, Rest, & Recover resources were “highly effective” in supporting resilience and 61.5% expressed that the resources were “effective” in supporting resilience. After using the ‘Outdoor Resilience Box’, 42.9% of students rated it as “highly effective” in supporting resilience and 57.1% rated it as “effective.” Developing a resilience program for OT graduate students provides opportunities for students to access research-backed tools shown to build skills of resilience prior to their transition into practice