Working Conditions Influencing Professionalization of Occupational and Physical Therapists-Part 1: A Quantitative Perspective

The aim of this study was to survey the perception occupational and physical therapists had of their working conditions in the context of ongoing professionalization. Seven hundred Swedish occupational and physical therapists, equally represented and surveyed nationwide, met the criteria established for inclusion in the study. The findings revealed that most of the therapists experienced a strong feeling of job satisfaction and professional self-concept and that physical therapists are a significant step ahead of occupational therapists in their answers. A final multiple regression equation was completed on the working conditions variables, theoretically connected with professionalization. The findings showed that most of them turned out to be significant predictors of overall job satisfaction. Surprisingly, only half of the therapists experienced a reasonable possibility of developing and learning new things at work, and a minority admitted autonomy concerning identification of the patients' treatment needs. A tentative conclusion is that most of the therapists are extenders of functions performed by the physician. They neither seem to have a fair chance, nor do they seem to care to take on full responsibility for their professional development and field of competence, and to make their expert knowledge explicit. This might constitute an important barrier to full professional status.