By : Frida Ambros, Karin BlomkvistSporre

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Diversity and equality among students, clients
and practicing occupational therapists 

• By Frida Ambros, Karin Blomkvist-Sporre
• Hanni Ringmar
• From The Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

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• Relation to theme Representation
•  
• Purpose of the project
• It was the year of diversity and equality and
  we wanted to organize this day to acknowledge
  this on our school and to our fellow OT students.

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• Project implementation
• The day started with a quick presentation of what
  the plans for the day were. Then a lecture was
  held by an ethnologist. She talked about what
  problems concerning equality and diversity that
  can arise between healthcare personnel and
  clients.

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• After the lecture the students were divided into
  three groups, with students from different
  semesters. All students went to three different
  workshops
• Workshop with art a discussion
• Workshop with theatre a discussion
• Workshop with games and reflections

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Workshop 1 Art and discussion

• All students were given different notes
  containing information about a cultural context.
  Students were then asked to imagine themselves
  being that person and individually use paint to
  illustrate their thoughts.
• Having done that, the students were asked the
  question on how they could fulfil their dream of
  becoming an occupational therapist in that
  specific cultural context. The students then
  discussed this question and talked about
  prejudices.

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Workshop 2Theatre and discussion

• The group was divided in to smaller groups with
  three persons in each. Each group was given a
  case and then one of the group members were asked
  to play the role of an occupational therapist,
  and the other persons played patients and/or a
  relative.
• The cases were about different problems regarding
  diversity and equality. The group was asked to
  makes a small scene out of this and play it to
  the rest of the group.
• After they had played their scene there were
  discussions and questions were posed on how to
  solve the problem and how to deal with the
  feelings that had aroused.

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Workshop 3 Games and reflections

• The students played a game where they were
  supposed to divide themselves into smaller groups
  based on if they had a given topic together or
  not. Then the groups were mixed and then they
  were supposed to find something that they had in
  common with each other in this new group.
• The purpose of this game was for the students to
  learn that you can find something that you have
  in common with almost any person you meet.
• After the game the students reflected around
  groups, for example how you can be equal in a
  group.

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• After the workshops all the students came
  together and talked about what they had done
  during the day. They were asked to say words that
  they had found important and inspiring during the
  day. Then they used those words and wrote a poem
  together.

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Project results

• We were very interested in what the students
  thought about the day. Therefore we asked each
  student to fill up a questionnaire.
• We asked them what was positive and negative
  about the day, what they think would be good to
  change and what thoughts they were going to take
  with them.

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• The things they were most positive about was the
  workshops because they were fun and interesting.
• They also thought it was fun to met other OT
  students and they liked the whole concept of the
  day.

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• The things they thought was negative was that the
  lecture was to long.
• Some students also thought that the lecture did
  not have so much relevance for them as OT
  students.

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• In the future the students wanted to have more
  time, more theatre and more workshops.
• They also wanted more discussions and time to
  reflect around equality and diversity.
• The thoughts that they took with them were very
  different from each other, but most of them
  thought about new things that they had realised
  or learned.

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Project impact on the society or university

• Since all the students were so positive to having
  a day with focus on equality and diversity, a day
  like this will most likely be held each semester
  on the OT programme on Karolinska Institutet.

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Recommendation for future OTs

• We recommend other students, teachers and
  practicing occupational therapists to have a day
  of equality and diversity.
• These things are important to reflect upon. That
  is why a day like this is good to have to open
  our minds and talk about our prejudice so we can
  be aware of them.
• To be able to see all the possibilities with
  diversity and to treat all people
  respectfully are also important in our
  occupation.

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Thank you for you attention!

• If you have any questions. Welcome to contact

Frida Ambros (frida_ambros_at_hotmail.com) Karin
Blomkvist Sporre (karin.blomkvist-sporre.300_at_stud
ent.ki.se) Hanni Ringmar (hanni.ringmar.910_at_stud
ent.ki.se)