A Concept Analysis of Clinical Reasoning in Occupational Therapy

Introduction: Acquiring competence in clinical reasoning is regarded as key to meet the challenges of integrating knowledge into one's practice. Learners and educators need a shared understanding of what is clinical reasoning because they need appropriate means for reflection and feedback. However, the clinical reasoning concept needs revisiting in the current context, which is becoming increasingly diverse and complex. The purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical reasoning concept and develop a common framework.Methods: Rodgers' concept analysis was selected for this theoretical study. Accordingly, a systematically search of multiple databases yielded 903 articles and 135 articles that met the inclusion criteria were extracted, and of these 30 articles randomly sampled for analysis. Data analysis was done following Rodgers' method of thematic analysis. Results: The attributes were four ‘therapeutic thinking processes’ and two ‘professional thinking skills.’ The application contexts were ‘clinical and non-clinical practice settings,’ and ‘professional education.’ Moreover, the antecedents were ‘professional factors’ and ‘practice factors,’ and the consequences were ‘professional developments’ and ‘professional attitudes and behaviours.’ Conclusion: The resulting framework of clinical reasoning can be the basis for developing pedagogies and assessment of clinical reasoning competence acquisition.