Flow and the occupational therapy practitioner.

OBJECTIVE This study examined optimal flow experience, a form of job satisfaction in occupational therapy practitioners employed at physical rehabilitation facilities in New England. METHOD Factors associated with flow were measured over a 5-day work week with the Experience Sampling Method. Ninety-seven percent of the 90 subjects' responses were analyzed and 43% of the subjects participated in the debriefing interview. RESULTS Subjects experienced flow a relatively small amount of the time--an average of 5.24 times in a 5-day work week, with a range of 1 to 12 experiences. Flow was experienced most often (23.6%) when subjects were working with a client in some type of intervention. Perceived autonomy and self-esteem were high during a flow experience. Subjects described their flow experiences as including such moods and attitudes as "alert," "happy," "involved," creative," "excited," "productive," "accomplished," "proud," "good," "confident," "positive," and "challenged." Conversely, subjects in flow also tended to describe their mood as "tense." CONCLUSION Retaining occupational therapy practitioners is critical to meeting and increasing the unprecedented demand for health care services. Understanding what causes occupational therapy practitioners to experience flow and how to transform an activity into a flow experience may ultimately improve job satisfaction, productivity, and the retention of practitioners.