Sep 2, 2026 · 34 min · 12 segments
What does it take to build a career in clinical academia, and what happens when your research challenges the way we think about care? 🎙️ In this episode of *Humans of Clinical Academia*, we’re…
Gail MountainGuest
Judith JohnsonHost
So just thinking about your clinical academic career as a whole, what's the biggest myth about life as a clinical academic that you would like to dispel?
You can't, you can have your niche projects and indeed I've had mine and several of them have come to fruition, not all, but you must go with what is being funded.
What did your day-to-day actually look like? Is there anything that you think would have surprised people who weren't working in academia, maybe clinicians, if they had known what your academic work actually involved?
the time spent putting in applications, the issues that you'll be aware of, such as ethical issues, which have grown exponentially, rightly so.
I think the time taken to try and develop other researchers, some of whom will make it and some won't.
Do you think there is a misperception in clinicians that research is an easy out?
I think in occupational therapy, I think if you'd asked a number, I think people are a bit more wary of it, a bit scared, if you like.
There's also another myth around that it pertains to occupational therapy a lot because of the way that academic life was constructed within the profession in that only people who were teaching occupational therapies were academics in the past.
So there's this big myth around that if you're a teacher, then you also can be a researcher.
I never did occupational therapy teaching apart from guest lectures and things for a variety of reasons.
But I know that being a full-time teacher is a completely different skill set and I would have to learn that and vice versa.
So people get a bit worried because they think they should be able to do it, particularly people who are teaching occupational therapy.
So just thinking about your clinical academic career as a whole, what's the biggest myth about life as a clinical academic that you would like to dispel?
You can't, you can have your niche projects and indeed I've had mine and several of them have come to fruition, not all, but you must go with what is being funded.
What did your day-to-day actually look like? Is there anything that you think would have surprised people who weren't working in academia, maybe clinicians, if they had known what your academic work actually involved?
the time spent putting in applications, the issues that you'll be aware of, such as ethical issues, which have grown exponentially, rightly so.
I think the time taken to try and develop other researchers, some of whom will make it and some won't.
Do you think there is a misperception in clinicians that research is an easy out?
I think in occupational therapy, I think if you'd asked a number, I think people are a bit more wary of it, a bit scared, if you like.
There's also another myth around that it pertains to occupational therapy a lot because of the way that academic life was constructed within the profession in that only people who were teaching occupational therapies were academics in the past.
So there's this big myth around that if you're a teacher, then you also can be a researcher.
I never did occupational therapy teaching apart from guest lectures and things for a variety of reasons.
But I know that being a full-time teacher is a completely different skill set and I would have to learn that and vice versa.
So people get a bit worried because they think they should be able to do it, particularly people who are teaching occupational therapy.
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