Research Article “I Could Really Use This”: Occupational Therapy Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Coach Marie-Christine Potvin , Erin K. West, Alexis N. Morales, Katherine S. Sailor, and Natalie Coronado Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Thomas Jefferson University, 901 Walnut Street, 6th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Marie-Christine Potvin; marie-christine.potvin@jefferson.edu Received 10 February 2022; Revised 10 August 2022; Accepted 13 September 2022; Published 13 October 2022 Academic Editor: Claudia Hilton Copyright © 2022 Marie-Christine Potvin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Coaching, an evidence-based approach in other fields, is relatively novel within occupational therapy (OT) and is not yet widely taught in OT programs. In recent studies, experienced occupational therapists have reported that coaching added value to their practice, but OT students’ perspectives are missing from the literature. This phenomenological study explored OT students’ (n = 14) perceptions of the value of learning to coach while in fieldwork. Three themes emerged from the inductive qualitative analysis: Coaching Requires a Mindset Shift, Change is a Journey, and Impact on Clients. Occupational therapy students perceived that coaching required a different way of thinking and reimagining their role, saw the value of learning to coach in the clients’ outcomes, and recognized the potential for their future practice regardless of settings. The study findings suggest that incorporating coaching skills into OT education could be beneficial to students when they enter the profession. 1. Introduction Coaching is an evidence-based approach used in various professions to help clients reach their goals [1]. The use of coaching within occupational therapy (OT) is relatively novel; the earliest study was published in 2010 [2]. So far, studies of OT-led coaching have all had positive outcomes regardless of populations including cerebral palsy, stroke, and autism spectrum disorder [2–8]; Mulcahey et al., [9]. In-depth training in coaching is needed before OT practi- tioners can effectively integrate coaching into their practice [6, 10]. Coaching requires a unique skill set that is not taught to most OT students in their entry-level curriculum [11]. The perspective of licensed occupational therapists who received training in coaching has been investigated [6, 12], but there is no research on the OT student per- spective of learning this approach within entry-level OT education. 1.1. What Is Coaching? The International Coaching Federa- tion (ICF), a premier coaching credentialling organization, defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought- provoking and creative process that inspires them to maxi- mize their personal and professional potential [13]. Over the last 25 years, the ICF has developed and updated coach- ing competencies that specify the behaviors and skills of coa- ches (e.g., listen actively, evoke awareness, and facilitate client’s growth), with the partnership between coach and cli- ent being central [14]. Many approaches labelled as “coach- ing” in the literature would not meet the ICF definition, as they include strategies such as teaching, modeling, scaffold- ing, and guiding [15]; ICF-style coaching does not include Hindawi Occupational erapy International Volume 2022, Article ID 2266326, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/2266326