Practising ethics: bildungsroman and community of practice in occupational therapists' professional development

Abstract

Professional ethics has currently raised its public profile in the UK as part of social anxiety around governance of health and social care, fuelled by catastrophically bad practice identified in particular healthcare facilities. Professional ethics is regulated by compliance with abstracted, normative codes but experienced as contextualised exercise of personal qualities, understanding and engagement. This study examined how practitioners from one speciality of occupational therapy (OT), an Allied Health Profession, develop ethical practice through (i) dialogical engagement in local OT communities of practice, supporting and modifying understanding of and approaches to specific situations experienced as ethically difficult and (ii) individual reflection on the personal bildungsroman underpinning their own professional practice. Engagement in community of practice and personal reflection contributed to ethical development for participating OTs. Opportunities to engage in peer OT groups and professional reflection should be considered by employers as integral to productive practice and not a distraction from it.

Keywords::

• professional ethics
• professional development
• ethical development
• bildung
• peer supervision

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the Occupational Therapist participants and Dr Gill Clarke MBE for her supervision of this research project submitted in fulfilment of EdD at School of Education, University of Southampton 2010.