Document Type (Journals)
Educational Innovations
Abstract
The stressful and demanding environment of a healthcare facility can lead to interpersonal conflict. As a result of working in these environments, occupational therapy students may experience such conflict during Level II fieldwork. Research has shown that effective conflict management is an important component of success on Level II fieldwork; however, occupational therapy students often self-report a lack of confidence, comfort, and competence with managing conflict. Forty Master of Occupational Therapy students took part in a 2-day conflict management workshop. The workshop consisted of didactic training of conflict management concepts; large group process drama activities that introduced relevant role-play concepts; and small groups process drama activities that applied role-play concepts specific to fieldwork conflict scenarios. Evaluation was conducted through pre- and post-surveys before and after the training. Pre- and post-surveys both gauged students’ self-perceptions of confidence, competence, and comfort around conflict management. The mean average of students’ self-perceptions of comfort, confidence, and competence with regard to conflict management improved after participation in the workshop. An independent samples t-test was completed for each self-perception question (confidence, comfort, and competence). There was significant difference in the scores for two questions: confidence pre-survey (M=2.95) and confidence post-survey (M=3.31); t(78)=3.46, p
Biography
Theresa Delbert, MS, OTR/L is an Assistant Professor and Academic Fieldwork Coordinator for the OT program at Chatham University. Her clinical experience spans the healthcare continuum with adults and children, including environments of rehabilitation, long-term care, home care, early intervention, and pediatric outpatient and school based.
Tyson Schrader, MA Ed earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from Carnegie Mellon University (2006) and his Master of Arts in Education from New York University (2008). Currently he is the program assistant for MOT and OTD programs at Chatham University.
Declaration of Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Recommended Citation
Delbert, T., & Schrader, T. (2019). Conflict Management in Occupational Therapy Education: Process Drama as a Teaching Strategy. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 3 (2). https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2019.030209
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.