There is a need for Occupational Therapy (OT) entrepreneurship in OT practice, but few Occupational Therapists practitioners (OTPs) initiate entrepreneurship opportunities. The purpose of this study was to explore the major causes surrounding why so few OTPs venture into private practice (Coppard, 2018). The participants included OTPs and OT students who have or had a private practice and those who desire to have a private practice but have not yet started one. The study was an exploratory mix-method design, which utilized pre-and post-surveys, and a one-time, two-hour interactive live workshop. The survey questions detailed the psychological and performance components of entrepreneur readiness. Surveys were disseminated through email and social media with prior consent. Once the presurvey results were received and analyzed, a pilot program via an interactive workshop was developed and implemented to address psychological and performance barriers to increase readiness. Once participants completed the workshop, a post-survey was administered to determine if there was an increase in entrepreneur readiness (Adeniyi, Derera & Gamede, 2022). The results of the study showed an increase in the importance of psychological readiness and the realization that most participants did not realize they were not as ready as they had envisioned based on specific personality and character traits. The study also revealed that most participants did not realize that they had learned certain aspects of business management and health insurance fundamentals but were not taught the essentials for starting a business and getting paid through health insurance reimbursements. Results also indicated that the intervention, OT to OT Entrepreneur Workshop, made a positive impact on participants in the areas of self-efficacy, technical knowledge, and beliefs about entrepreneurship. The study was meant to serve as a starting point to discover what is needed to increase the percentages of OT practitioners becoming OT entrepreneurs (OTE) so that a variety of traditional and non-traditional OT services can be offered within the community to increase physical, emotional, and mental health and well-being. In addition, the study was meant to increase the OTPs’ ability to practice more comprehensively according to the OT Scope of Practice, to increase autonomy, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction and decrease burnout (AOTA, 2021; Adeniyi, Derera & Gamede, 2022; Anderson & Nelson, 2011; Park, 2021; Stoffel, 2017). The study outcomes will guide the researcher in developing a complete comprehensive readiness program to increase OT entrepreneurship. / Temple University. College of Public Health / Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

This master thesis presents the field of Occupational Therapy within rehabilitation care and points out the possibilities of its use in follow-up care and field outpatient practice. The thesis aims at the elaboration of a business plan for establishing an Occupational Therapy private practice, which would provide Occupational Therapy service and rehabilitation for people with lasting functional deficit in their own social environment or in an Occupational Therapy outpatient department. The theoretic part focuses on the theoretic basis of business, requirements for establishing of a private practice and concept of strategic management and analysis. It continues with the structure of business plan and presents the field of Occupational Therapy, its history, actual situation and position within the comprehensive care. The practical part contains an analytic part describing the exhaustive strategic analysis, of which the results are summarized in a SWOT analysis, and a research describing the survey inquiry among physicians authorized to prescribe the Occupational Therapy. The business plan for an Occupational Therapy (field or outpatient) private practice is elaborated based on the results. In conclusion, the present plan is evaluated from the point of view of feasibility, profitability and...