Standard Grant: Health Professions Education Strategies for Broadening Participation in Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy

Creighton University, Omaha NE

Investigators

Abstract

After 1960, healthcare institutions and specialties expanded rapidly, but access to health professions education and careers remained limited for many Americans. The resulting lack of broad participation in health professions contributed to the limited availability and quality of care for many marginalized populations. This project examines the history of health professions, with a focus on physical therapy and occupational therapy education. Each of these fields was heavily influenced by approaches to medical education reforms stemming from the Flexner Report (1910). By contrast, the nursing profession adopted alternative models, which promoted broader participation in nursing education and career advancement. These approaches helped to make the nursing profession more accessible to people from less privileged educational and financial backgrounds, and eventually led to nursing becoming more demographically representative than other US health fields at every career level. In this history of medicine project, the investigators explore patterns of participation in physical therapy and occupational therapy education. Science and Technology Studies scholars have primarily focused on medical education, with a parallel literature on nursing. In comparison, very little attention has been given to smaller and less well-known health professions. There is a great need for wide-ranging analyses of the broader system of U.S. health professions, including physical therapy and occupational therapy. Drawing on archival sources, published reports, and oral history interviews, the investigators examine initiatives that sought to enhance educational accessibility and career mobility in physical therapy and occupational therapy, and the role of academic and professional institutions in creating barriers to these efforts. As part of this, the investigators explore the evolving status and institutional characteristics of physical therapy and occupational therapy education since 1960, and the correlation between increased accessibility and the demographic representation across students and practitioners in these fields. Results from this research will be directly shared with health professions educators through a variety of academic forums. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.