Exploring the Working World of Occupational Therapy Clinical Leaders

Abstract

The Australian public health system, influenced by repeated reforms, has experienced sustained policy and financial pressures leading to the creation of new roles such as the Queensland Health Occupational Therapy Clinical Leader (OTCL). This thesis investigated the lived experiences of ten OTCLs to gain an understanding of this new role and explored the scope in terms of the clinical and managerial responsibilities. This research drew on two philosophies of hermeneutic phenomenology (Heidegger 1962; Gadamer 1975; van Manen 2001) and the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis approach (Smith 2004) as components of the methodology with in-depth semi-structured interviews as the method of data collection. Kanter's (1977) theory of organisational power was chosen as the theoretical framework and informed the process of data analysis.