Strategies, Facilitators, and Barriers in Managing Academic Occupational Disruptions: Implications for Occupational Therapy Education.

Background: Higher education was gravely affected by the pandemic which caused academic occupational disruptions and affected students. Challenges in successful engagement in occupations influence the health and well-being of the individual. Consequently, it is vital for occupational therapist (OT) educators to be informed on how to manage academic occupational disruptions to minimize its occurrence, mitigate its impact, and support students' academic occupations.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the strategies, facilitators, and barriers in managing academic occupational disruptions encountered by Filipino OT educators.

Methods: Respondents were ninety (90) Filipino OT educators coming from the different HEIs in the Philippines offering BSOT who completed an online cross-sectional survey. A 4-point Likert-scale was used to determine the strategies, facilitators, and barriers in managing academic occupational disruptions. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis.

Results: Respondents often (M = 2.95, SD = 0.94) utilize strategies for managing academic occupational disruptions, highlighting scheduling of synchronous and asynchronous sessions to balance online workload as the most utilized strategy. Respondents often (M = 3.00, SD = 0.70) encounter facilitators of managing academic occupational disruptions, citing flexibility of the school in adapting existing courses based on the context of delivery as the most common facilitator. Respondents sometimes (M = 2.19, SD = 0.95) encounter barriers to managing academic occupational disruptions, indicating need to work for income as the top barrier.

Conclusion: Despite the utilization of strategies and presence of facilitators in managing academic occupational disruptions, Filipino OT educators still encountered barriers. Psychosocial support and needs were also highlighted across strategies, facilitators, and barriers in managing academic occupational disruptions. This prompts for further sustainable development of OT competence to inform occupational therapy educators on how to minimize academic occupational disruptions, to mitigate its impact, and to support students' academic occupations.