Evaluating the professional behaviors of entry-level occupational therapy students.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPROPRIATE professional behaviors is considered one of the crucial learning outcomes for students in occupational therapy (OT)1 and other allied health professions. Responsibility for shaping the professional traits of future allied health professionals is of as much concern to educators as is the responsibility for assisting in the assimilation of the knowledge base of the student. Regarding OT specifically, Kasar and Clark2 stated that there has been a paradigm shift with an increasing need for high-caliber technical skills and professional behaviors. This paradigm shift seems to be occurring for all health professions. Previous practice orientation was focused on models that were institutionally based and illness oriented. Currently the practice of health care professionals is more consumer and community focused, with an emphasis on wellness and prevention. The practitioner now is encouraged to be more interdependent and concerned with quality enhancement, rather than just the status quo. With regard to OT, this statement is consistent with the preamble in the Standards for an Accredited Educational Program for the Occupational Therapist, which states, "a contemporary entry-level occupational therapist must: be prepared to be a lifelong learner and keep current with best professional practice; and uphold the ethical standards, values and attitudes of the occupational therapy profession."3 The implications for educators to develop these professional behaviors are many. There is general agreement among educators that learning appropriate professional behaviors is as important to becoming a competent practitioner as the learning of clinical skills.1 Clinicians and academicians alike agree that professional behaviors first need to be developed and nurtured in the academic setting and refined in the clinical education setting. Despite this agreement, OT faculty at St. Louis University struggled with exactly how to connect academic and professional development when criteria for evaluation were largely subjective. In discussions with other health care faculty, this issue seemed to exist across most practice disciplines. In an effort to address these complex issues, the OT faculty developed the Professional Development Evaluation (PDE). The purpose of this article is to describe the development of the PDE through a literature review focusing on professional development from the perspective of several health care disciplines and discussion of the development of the PDE and the resulting development of a student advising model. Implications for future research also are discussed. Background Literature What is meant by professional behaviors? O'Rourke4 suggested that there are three dimensions that all professions must exhibit. The first is a normative dimension that includes values and ethics supporting the idea of self-regulation. The second is an evaluative dimension that includes overseeing standards of practice and guiding professional activity. The third is a cognitive dimension that includes standards for education and demonstration of mastery of appropriate practice skills and clinical applications. Miller and Keane5 stated that "members of a profession are committed to continued study, place service above personal gain, and are committed to providing practical services vital to human and social welfare." To assist allied health educators in developing professional behaviors in their students, it is important to consider theories of student development. Chickering's6 theory of social development in college students provides an outline for examining student behaviors. This theory consists of seven vectors of student development: (1) developing competence, (2) managing emotions, (3) moving through autonomy toward independence, (4) developing mature interpersonal relationships, (5) establishing identity, (6) developing purpose, and (7) developing integrity. Students' movement along these seven vectors is a reflection of their developmental maturation. …