Training Clinical Instructors to Lead a PT/PTA Student Team
Purpose: Clinical educators encounter many challenges when providing quality clinical education experiences for students. More specifically, reduced clinical site availability and the lack of intraprofessional opportunities have facilitated the exploration for creative solutions. One option may be collaborative learning models (CLM) as they have been shown to improve site availability in physical therapy and other allied health professions. And though the reported evidence suggests that successful implementation of CLM requires training for all participants, the evidence is limited regarding the specifics of such training. Moreover, the application of CLM within the context of intraprofessional clinical education is very limited. Thus, the two-fold purpose of this study was to: 1) use current evidence to develop a training program for clinical instructors (CI) who are interested in implementing CLM which incorporate intraprofessional relationships specific to Doctor of Physical Therapist (DPT) and Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) student teams; and 2) develop and describe potential outcomes to measure the success of the training program.
Methods/Description: A convenience sample of 17 CI, who practice in various clinical settings, agreed to participate in this study. Each participant was interviewed using a set of structured questions developed from current evidence specific to training topics and their prior experience with CLM. Further, open-ended questions were posed to the participants to identify additional perceived training needs when implementing CLM that incorporate intraprofessional student teams.
Results/Outcomes: Recurrent topic themes generated from the interviews included: 1) identifying the background, benefits, and challenges of CLM; 2) DPT/PTA team interactions, roles, and delegation principles; 3) creating effective collaborative learning plans; 4) effectively managing an intraprofessional student team; and 5) methods for facilitating peer-assisted learning. These themes were then used to guide the development of an online training program, learning objectives, and outcome measures for CI on intraprofessional CLM implementation.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Intraprofessional CLM is an innovative approach to meeting both clinical and curricular challenges faced by clinical educators. However, the need for training CI when incorporating intraprofessional CLM is evident. This study describes the development of a unique intraprofessional CLM training course for CI. Future research is needed to explore the effects of training on CIs’ perceived confidence in implementing CLM and how this may affect the quality of intraprofessional student learning experiences in clinical settings.