Dissertation delight sets up future plan for OT student

A GCU student is in the running for double dissertation success and hopes it could be the initial step in a longer career plan.

MSc Occupational Therapy student Rowena Harrison has already won the Joanna Pratt Best Dissertation award for her department and has also been put forward for the RCOT Early Researcher Prize by her lecturer Amy Cooper.

The recognition comes after Rowena completed a study focusing on the number of homecare hours patients had before and after going through a reablement programme.

Rowena said: “I was very surprised to receive any sort of recognition if I’m perfectly honest!

We were given a list of around 50 different topics we could cover and I wanted to choose one that could actually lead to impacting directly on service provision. Rehabilitation is an area I’ve always been interested in, so it just made perfect sense for me.”

Rowena, who is now registered to practice and set to start her first post in the NHS, also spoke of the importance of this for her long-term career goals.

She explained: “To win the Joanna Pratt award and even be put forward for this will look impressive in the future and it’s now just a waiting game to see what happens.

I’ve always been interested in research and I’m hoping to bring it into practice in the workplace.

Eventually, I want to go into academia and become a lecturer - it’s definitely a goal of mine to complete a PHD as well.”

MSc Occupational Therapy lecturer Amy Cooper explained why she nominated Rowena for the prestigious RCOT award.

Amy said: “Rowena’s ability to interpret, analyse and critically evaluate the data led to constructive recommendations for future practice and research.

Rowena worked autonomously with minimal supervision and took her own initiative regarding decisions. The passion and dedication demonstrated throughout her dissertation was exceptional.”


By Ross Clark
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