A Community of Practice of primary health care occupational therapists: Advancing practice-based knowledge

INTRODUCTION

New contexts of practice demand that professionals engage in critical reflection to handle new situations and to create new knowledge that is responsive to professional practices situated in unique historical and social contexts. Community of Practice offers a framework for professions to reflect together on practice dilemmas and to generate practical solutions.

METHODS

This paper presents a participatory action research project that traces the trajectory of a Community of Practice made up of seven occupational therapists working in primary health care and a researcher team, in Brazil. This study mapped the Community of Practice's trajectory between 2013 and 2017 through a group timeline analysis, which occurred gradually, in a collaborative mode.

RESULTS

Three distinct phases in the trajectory of the development of the Community of Practice were identified: narrative perspectives were utilised as a means to identify dilemmas and difficulties in practice; the investigation of clients' needs and identification of issues was an ongoing process; and the generation of practice-based knowledge through the development of instruments to sustain clinical reasoning was a creative solution to practical dilemmas.

CONCLUSION

Three main aspects were highlighted: the partnership between researchers and practitioners as a potential avenue for the production of knowledge relevant to professional practice; the negotiation of the dilemma of "putting practice into words" in the context of constantly changing local and global perspectives; and the investigation of situated practice as an important element that can strengthen, strain, resist or even modify hegemonic perspectives of knowledge production in our field.