Clinical commitment and competence: a qualitative study

Commitment, a component of clinical competence, includes accountability and responsibility for professional roles and tasks; and, it has a positive correlation with job satisfaction and performance. This study aimed to elaborate on the concept of commitment in the field of occupational therapy using qualitative content analysis. The data was collected through interviewing 13 occupational therapists both in a focus group interview (including four participants) and in one-to-one interviews (nine other participants). The collected data was analyzed based on the Grenheim method, and commitment concept was defined under three main themes: (i) commitment to patient (five subthemes), (ii) commitment to self (three subthemes), and (iii) commitment to profession (three subthemes). This study’s findings indicated that to acquire clinical competence, therapists should be committed to their patients, to themselves, and to their profession. Future research is needed to further examine how and to what extent these commitment themes affect clinical competence as well as the interaction among them.