Perceptions of Occupational Therapy compared with Physiotherapy and Nursing among Minority Ethnic and White United Kingdom School and College Students: Implications for Recruitment

There is currently a recruitment crisis in occupational therapy in the United Kingdom and also evidence that minority ethnic groups are underrepresented in the profession. This study comprised 651 self-completion questionnaires and 43 depth interviews with minority ethnic and white school and college students to investigate factors influencing attitudes to careers in occupational therapy. Occupational therapy was much less well known than nursing or physiotherapy and, compared with the white participants, the minority ethnic group participants were less familiar with it. Differences were also found in what the minority ethnic and the white participants wanted from careers. Significantly, the minority ethnic participants were more likely to regard doing a degree as important but were also less aware that occupational therapy was studied at degree level. The participants tended to perceive similarities between occupational therapy and nursing and the implications of this are discussed. In conclusion, while 1 in 10 participants would consider a career in occupational therapy, with lower proportions from the minority ethnic than the white participants, many characteristics of careers considered important by these students applied to occupational therapy. Efforts should be made to increase awareness of occupational therapy with, for example, emphasis placed on degree level study, job security and the level of responsibility and professional nature of the career.