The Metamorphosis of Identity through the Chrysalis of Fieldwork Education
By: Becky Piazza, OTD, MS, OTR/L, BCPR FLOTEC Academic Fieldwork Coordinator University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences [email protected]
I was recently inspired by Stephen Covey’s internationally acclaimed book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 2004). In it he states, “Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground and there’s no greater investment” (Covey, 2004, p. 70). This reminded me of the term reflective practitioner (Adam, Peters, & Chipchase, 2013; Bannigan, & Moores, 2009; Knightbridge, 2019; O’Reilly, & Milner, 2015; Parham, 1984), and the process of self-discovery that educators hope will occur during their OT and OTA students’ level II fieldwork journeys. Self-awareness, self-discovery, and the process of self-reflection are key tenants in identity creation, which in this context, is a level II fieldwork student’s ability to establish a clinical identity as an entry-level prepared practitioner. Quality fieldwork educators are key in this identity transformation from student to occupational therapy practitioner. The maturation process that culminates in successfully passing fieldwork, thus allowing graduation, is only the beginning of the self-growth journey that has just begun for these new practitioners. As fieldwork educators, awareness of our own self-growth equips us to mentor these future colleagues and model compassionate and effective service delivery. Our ability to reflect on our clinical competencies and the identity transformations that continually occur throughout our careers and lived experiences empower our distinct value as occupational therapists. It elevates and inspires human potential within us, our clients, our colleagues, and our students. Allow me to reflect on a recent self-growth journey of my own. This year I chose to say yes to a professional opportunity that required significant self-awareness, self-reflection, and proactivity towards my career as an occupational therapy practitioner; a valued role that I take great pride in, and one that significantly contributes to my self-efficacy and sense of purpose. I said yes to academia after more than 17 years in adult inpatient rehabilitation – an area of clinical practice that will forever remain my first love. This one “big” decision, of saying yes to a new job as an Academic Fieldwork Coordinator (AFWC), was much more than a singular decision made in a one-dimensional context. It required countless smaller, yet just as “big” decisions, whose consequences affected multiple individuals, systems, processes, and relationships across a myriad of environments, both personal and professional. My decision could not be made without an awareness of the occupational disruptions that my self-perceived “big” decision would surely cause in my colleagues’ lived work experiences, as well as in their perceptions of me as their boss. It was a decision that required months of continual assessment, reassessment, reflection, and consideration of my valued roles, habits, routines, goals, co-occupations, relationships, and performance abilities. Ultimately it was a decision that challenged my occupational therapy identity (Laliberte-Rudman, 2002; Laliberte-Rudman & Dennhardt, 2008). The infrastructure of my identity consisted of my many roles: occupational therapist, rehab therapist, neuro therapist, treating clinician, fieldwork educator, student coordinator, clinical education coordinator, supervisor, electronic medical records super-user, colleague, friend, mentor, etc. My occupational participation and performance across these roles, and my ability to meet the activity demands of the many occupations that made up each role, were optimized over time through a process of continuing competency development, life-long learning, and reflective practice. My confidence and competence were symbiotic in these complex, interwoven roles. The more I participated in these roles, the more my clinical occupational identity solidified. These experiences, and the confidence and competence that came from them, afforded me the opportunity to have a “big” decision to make in the first place, however, the juxtaposition of this optimized occupational performance is that it made me doubt my ability to be as effective in a novel role within a new environment, where my identity was less established and secure. Hence, my occupational identity transformation and reconstruction journey began, 18 years after the initial establishment of my clinical identity on level II fieldwork. The truth is, it has been a continual evolution since the day I transitioned from the halls of didactic coursework into the hospital rooms of level II fieldwork, and beyond into clinical practice once I earned those beautiful letters behind my name: OTR/L. I share this to convey that many clinicians go through a similar occupational identity transformation when they consider leaping into what they consider to be the unknown realm of Fieldwork Educator (FWE).
By Susan Hermes, OTD, BCP, OTR/L and Elena Vizvary, MS, OTR/L
