Background Traumatic injury is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Many patients experience a delayed return-to-work or are unable to return-to-work. Those that do return often have lower productivity. Vocational rehabilitation (VR) supports people to return to or remain in work. It has been shown to be effective in some conditions, but there is little evidence of its effect in trauma patients or of its acceptability to trauma patients and providers. We have developed a VR intervention (ROWTATE) currently being tested in a large scale randomised controlled trial in the UK and now present findings relating to acceptability.

Objective To explore acceptability of a VR intervention for trauma patients.

Methods Semi-structured interviews with trauma patients, occupational therapists and clinical psychologists providing the VR intervention. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a preliminary iterative review of early data was conducted using framework analysis based on the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability.

Results Findings from five patient and 10 occupational therapist and clinical psychologist interviews showed that patients and therapists held positive attitudes towards the intervention. Patients reported that engaging in the intervention did not require a lot of effort. Some therapists found the intervention was more time consuming or required more flexible use of time for some patients than anticipated. Most therapists found completing study records was burdensome. The intervention fit well with patients’ and therapists’ values and both groups had a good understanding of how the intervention worked. Patients and therapists perceived the intervention to be effective, but engaging employers in the process of the intervention was difficult in some cases. Both patients and therapists felt confident in doing what was required to engage in the intervention.

Conclusions The ROWTATE VR intervention is broadly acceptable both to patients who receive it and to occupational therapists and clinical psychologists who deliver it. The ROWTATE trial is generating data which will be useful for implementing the intervention in ‘real-world’ settings, in particular the resources, flexibility and tailoring needed to deliver the intervention. The role of employers in the intervention is being further explored and strategies for improving employer engagement will be developed.