The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) is currently developing a new vision, strategy and action plan for research and development to guide the profession’s progress and direction of travel over the next 5-10 years, which we anticipate will be published in the autumn. In order to measure the impact of the new strategy on future research and researcher development, it is necessary to map the position of contemporary occupational therapy research across the UK, using metrics to capture scale and impact.
RCOT has commissioned Sheffield Hallam University to conduct an assessment of contemporary research which will recruit UK registered occupational therapists undertaking research, to explore their roles, demographics and research activities.
The project aims to:
1) Recruit participants for a structured telephone interview about the overall occupational therapy research activity in their institution. Participants should work in an occupational therapy teaching department or research centre and have knowledge of the number of occupational therapy researchers within their institution.
2) Conduct a survey with UK-based occupational therapists who are active researchers who have been involved in one or more research project/s since 2014.
Are you an occupational therapist who undertakes research?
Do you think of yourself as a researcher?
If you’d like to take part in the project please contact the research team by Thursday 15 August.
The research team are also keen to hear from any research-focussed networks or professional groups (including Facebook and other social media groups) that potential respondents might be part of and that can be contacted in order to invite further participants.
Dr Jo Watson, RCOT Assistant Director – Education and Research, said: ‘We hope that many of you will decide to participate in this important research. It will provide an initial benchmark against which to measure our progress in achieving the ambitions set out in the new Research and Development Strategy, which itself will contribute towards positioning the profession, and our members, for the 21st century.’
If you are interested in participating or suggesting a research-focussed network and/or professional group for the researchers to engage with, please contact: Mehreen Afzal at ma2341@hallam.shu.ac.uk.