Occupational Therapists and Teachers Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: An Investigation in Mainstream Primary Schools in Three Australian States

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration between occupational therapists and teachers is complex. Discord between disciplines in the definition, conceptualisation, and operationalisation of collaboration adds to the complexity. Using an explanatory mixed-methods approach, this thesis measures and describes collaboration to offer a broad understanding of the practice and the multiple interactional determinants that facilitate or frustrate it. A scoping review mapped the current literature on collaboration between therapists and teachers to clarify definitions, conceptual boundaries, and influencing factors. This informed the design of the Phase 1 survey which measured occupational therapists (n=108) and teachers (n=33) self-reported collaboration using an instrument based on Bronstein’s Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Phase 2 employed shadowing observations and interviews to explore how occupational therapists (n=10) and teachers (n=11) construct and ascribe meaning to their collaborative practice in the context of schools. The thesis argues that by combining data a more nuanced understanding of collaboration is attained. Participants were drawn from schools in three Australian states that used different models of therapy service provision. Participants reported moderately high collaboration, however, measurement failed to sufficiently capture the mediating effect that personal, professional, and systems factors had on professionals’ ability to practice collaboratively. The model of therapy service provision arbitrated collaboration, and embedded models facilitated all aspects of collaborative practice. The thesis proposes embedding therapists in schools as a means of improving collaboration. Insights from the study may also inform the development of instruments that better capture the dynamic interaction of factors that influence collaboration.