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Building cultural bridges: inclusion, diversity, and equity in academic learning – occupational therapy (ideal-OT)

Occupational therapy (OT) is a global health care and justice-oriented profession. Preparing OT students to include justice as a part that intersects with practice—and not as an optional choice—should be an essential component of academic learning in OT programs. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Vision 2025 adopted a strong commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity, declaring that every individual has the right to feel valued, welcomed, and respected (AOTA, 2018). In this OT doctoral project, the author has developed an educational guide, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Academic Learning - Occupational Therapy (IDEAL-OT) for OT programs. This project was designed to integrate inclusion, diversity, and equity within the OT curricula to be a woven aspect in the OT students' clinical reasoning and professional performance to serve diverse population appropriately. The author aims to fill existing gaps in the literature on adopting the cultural humility lens within OT profession through a theory driven, client-centered, and evidence-based approach as a road map to meeting the OT profession’s standards and clients’ diverse needs. By adopting this project, OT students will demonstrate and practice OT within the cultural humility scope by improving self-efficacy in serving diverse population and meet the client's culturally individualized needs, and advocate for individuals with limited opportunities as global citizens, agents of change, and life-long learners.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/44475
Date23 May 2022
CreatorsDamrah, Nancy
ContributorsAbbott-Gaffney, Cynthia
Source SetsBoston University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis/Dissertation

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