Between artefacts and critical decisions, reflections on the purposes of high quality accreditation in occupational therapy: A scoping review.

Accreditation represents a reputational mechanism of quality assurance through which academic programmes seek to voluntarily demonstrate not only compliance with educational standards, but also to demonstrate that they respond to social needs with the highest quality in the face of trends of change and innovation. However, in Occupational Therapy, there is little peer-reviewed academic production in this field, which challenges academic communities and trade organisations to intentionally reflect on and guide evidence-based efforts on their aims and mechanisms to gain consensus. Based on a scoping review, this study aims to explore the state of evidence-based knowledge on accreditation processes of occupational therapy programmes by identifying how accreditation criteria align with the realities and needs of the professional field with the current demands of the profession and the main perspectives to guide future actions.

State of knowledge; evidence; accreditation