Maintaining Professional Identity and Role in the Modern Workplace

Abstract

In the last decade, occupational therapists have faced new performance and commissioning demands from the state. These demands, such as Payment by Results (PbR) or funding tied to performance, have, on the face of it, improved service delivery and patient experience. However, they have also introduced new ways of working and new demands from management that have contributed to a crisis of identity, as therapists struggle to reconcile conflict- ing professional, managerial, and service demands with their day-to-day practice (Lloyd et al 2010). Professionals possess a unique and complex body of knowledge that cannot easily be appreciated and under- stood by those outside the profession. This body of knowledge, along with autonomy and self-regulation, are regarded as important aspects of professionalism and professional identity. However, it is now customary for occupational therapists to work as lone professionals within multi-disciplinary teams, often with professionals of other disciplines as their line or service managers, thereby experiencing differing local management and variant local practice.