ABSTRACT

Objective: This study aims to determine what students in the Department of Occupational Therapy experienced during visiting rehabilitation practice and to understand the essential meaning so as to provide a wide understanding of visiting rehabilitation practice. Methods: Among qualitative research approaches, phenomenological research methods were applied for data collection through one-on-one interviews with eight occupational therapy students between November 29 and December 15, 2022. Colaizzi's research method was used for the data analysis. Results: A total of 276 meaningful statements among the collected data were derived from 30 codes, 11 themes, and 4 theme clusters. It was found that after home-based rehabilitation fieldwork practice, occupational therapy students came to think of new experiences, psychological experiences, and occupational therapy as being different from pre-fieldwork practice. The limitations included unorganized fieldwork practice guidance management and differences in intervention according to the level of competence of the occupational therapist. Conclusion: Owing to the recent changes in the rehabilitation paradigm and increasing interest and need for community care and home-based rehabilitation, this study can be used as basic data to reflect and expand home-based rehabilitation fieldwork practice in a regular clinical fieldwork practice curriculum.