摘要：Little is understood about best educational strategies to engage diverse occupational therapy students in professional advocacy. The purpose of this research was to use design-based research (DBR) methods to design a novel educational intervention to promote professional engagement of diverse students over three subsequent years. This study used a pre/post design to design, implement, evaluate, and revise an educational program entitled “Student Engagement in Professional Advocacy” (SEPA). This manuscript reports on the first year of that study. The participants (N=27) were entry-level Master of Science occupational therapy students. The outcome measure was a survey measuring student knowledge, attitude, and participation specific to professional advocacy. All participants completed the pre and post surveys and participated in four SEPA educational modules. Significant differences were observed in pre and post scores in knowledge (p < 0.0001), action (p= 0.004), and attitude (p=0.012). This suggests that SEPA was effective at increasing student knowledge of, attitudes toward, and participation in professional advocacy. Pearson correlation of domains revealed a strong positive association between knowledge and attitude (p= 0.0003), actions and attitude (p = 0.0018), and action and knowledge (p=0.0262). This indicates that educational programs promoting professional engagement should address knowledge and attitudes and provide opportunities for participation. Qualitative data provided additional information on how students integrated professional engagement into their identity as students, and practical feedback on how to improve the program. Study findings supported the use of SEPA to promote student professional engagement. Further research is indicated, including conducting additional iterations of the project to continue to refine SEPA.
