Abstract
Occupational therapists, among other health care professionals, may experience difficulty with the transition from student to practitioner. This dissertation in practice focuses on
the lived experience of occupational therapy graduates during their transition to practice
and how that experience may have been impacted by receiving elective education on
maternal and infant health during their occupational therapy education. Using a
phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were completed via Zoom with
graduates across practice settings and qualitative data was analyzed using six-phase
thematic analysis. Analysis resulted in three overall themes and twelve subthemes, which
were used to develop recommendations for occupational therapy education programs and
employers of new graduates to ease the transition to practice.