Dr Stephanie Tempest* and Dr Karina Dancza**
Change is a constant, but the last year in particular has brought more disruption, including within our professional, working lives. We have needed to adapt, to work in different ways to deliver our services and we have had to rise to the challenge. It has become clear that with disruption comes the opportunity to question our thinking on what is possible.
Within this period, we wrote the second edition of the Career Development Framework. As with the first edition, it is based on the four Pillars of Practice (Professional Practice, Facilitation of Learning, Leadership and Evidence, Research and Development) and nine career levels. The context in which we wrote the second edition inspired us to stop and reflect on how else we could use the updated Framework, especially around the four Pillars of Practice.
We have both had moments during the last year when we have felt completely overwhelmed. We have felt like novices in several Pillars where we previously felt very capable, such as facilitating learning online or leading a team but from a distance. While this was uncomfortable at times, it taught us about the importance of appreciating the impact of our new context. Looking back, we mistakenly allowed the change in context and all the associated demands to affect our sense of personal capability; we could have been kinder to ourselves.
We hope that in publishing the Framework alongside the RCOT Professional standards for occupational therapy practice, conduct and ethics (2021), it can be used as a tool to aid reflection, in order to help us make sense of recent experiences. It has the potential to act as a structure to help us capture our learning and challenge our thinking. As a result, we can grow and develop our professional selves, as we continue to evolve, adapt and respond to change.
We know the Career Development Framework already helps people to:
- plan their continuing professional development at different stages of their careers
- prepare for supervision, mentoring or appraisal
- structure personal statements in job and promotion applications and for the HCPC audit; and
- articulate transferable knowledge and skills from previous careers and life experiences, including when moving into different sectors (Morais et al 2018).
But we also hope it can be used to:
- acknowledge what we have learnt and achieved from our experiences of disruption and relate this to all four Pillars of Practice;
- provide a structure to support reflection and learning, on our own and with others, as part of making sense of the disruption we have faced; and
- identify the next stages for our learning and development.
Returning to the idea of the impact of context, we appreciate the Framework itself will not help us to learn. It is dependent on how we use it and the environment in which we practise. For example, we have mentioned the use of the Framework within supervision and appraisals, but we recognise that these need to be supportive and safe spaces to explore the art of the possible, to enable learning and development to happen. If used within a culture of ticking boxes, the Framework will become just another tool used to judge rather than enable. We also need to be comfortable to explore our own response to learning and change, topics which lend themselves to blogs in their own right.
Michael Carroll (2009) in a critical reflection suggested that “learning = growth = development = change”. We’re suggesting that change is not always the outcome but something that is often thrust upon us. Therefore, our hope is that we can use the Framework to help us learn about ourselves, to identify the knowledge and skills that have grown from recent experiences, alongside those that we need to develop, so we can make the most out of the change that has happened by learning from it.
The new edition of the Career Development Framework is available for free public download. You will also find resources to use it in practice.
References:
Carroll, M (2009) Supervision: Critical Reflection for Transformational Learning, Part 1. The Clinical Supervisor, 28, 210-220.
Morais, L, Ahmad, K, Tempest S (2018) To support myself, support others and support transitions. OTnews, 26(9), 38-41.
Royal College of Occupational Therapists (2021) Professional Standards of Occupational Therapy Practice, Conduct and Ethics. London: RCOT. Available for free public download.
*Dr Stephanie Tempest: formerly RCOT Professional Development Manager now Company Director for Stephanie Tempest Consultancy Ltd
**Dr Karina Dancza: formerly RCOT Professional Advisor now Assistant Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology