How Does An Occupational Therapy Practitioner Become Engaged In Interdisciplinary Research?

Question

Answer

This is something that we are asked frequently. I had a student who was working as a clinician, looking at doctoral programs, and was taking a couple of courses in a movement science program. I knew a little bit that program and had collaborated with folks in that department. She was very interested in thinking about what avenues to pursue and was worried about possibly missing out on particular opportunities if she did not take the right path. I think the first thing that I impressed upon her was that there is not necessarily a right path. There are lots of opportunities that come about serendipitously when you are part of an interdisciplinary team. That is one of the exciting parts of being part of an interdisciplinary team is that you do not know what kinds of opportunities may occur while you are on that team. I told her that she should continue to explore opportunities while in this doctoral program. Some of those opportunities might include partnering with other individuals who maybe are looking for an expert in her area of clinical expertise. I think that that is one way to get started.

Another way to get started is to think about researchers that you may be interested in collaborating with. Perhaps you can reach out to them and ask whether you could take part in their team meetings to see whether there are some areas of overlapping interests that you might have with them. I think not being shy is definitely one of the aspects of interdisciplinary science that can be very helpful.