Student Physical Therapist Perceptions of Intra-Professional Education
Purpose/Hypothesis: A strong, collaborative physical therapist (PT) and physical therapist assistant (PTA) relationship is important to provide consistent, high-quality patient care. However, little research has investigated the PT-PTA relationship during the professional training of these practitioners. Mathews et al. reported positive impacts of an intra-professional clinical education experience, but called for more training before students reach their terminal clinical experiences.5 Brooks & Gorman argue for intra-professional educational learning experiences using a professionalism-focused event.1 Two other groups have reported positive results using intra-professional education in their curricula.2-4 The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intra-professional educational experience on PT student perceptions of the PT-PTA relationship. We hypothesized that this educational experience will significantly improve the PT students’ perceptions of PTAs and make them feel ready to interact with PTAs in the clinic.
Number of Subjects: Thirty-six PT students in their final semester before their terminal clinical experiences participated in this study.
Materials and Methods: Physical therapy students participating in a two-part intra-professional educational experience with PTA students from another school were recruited. This intra-professional education experience consisted of two 2-hour sessions of small group work organized around one of three patient cases set in either acute care, outpatient orthopedics or inpatient rehabilitation. The first session was a facilitated discussion to allow the students to get to know each other, a role-play of an initial examination by the PT students, debriefing this role-play, and a collaborative treatment planning session. The second session began with a role-play of the PTA student led treatment of the patient examined in the last session. The patients had a presentation that would necessitate further collaboration between the PT and PTA students. These role-plays were then debriefed in small groups and then in a large group. PT students’ attitudes toward PTAs and the PT-PTA interaction were assessed before the first session and after the second session. These attitudes were assessed using twelve questions previously utilized by Cavallo & Richter and Hawthorne, Cohoon, & Chambers.4 Changes in scores were assessed using paired t-tests with alpha equal to 0.05.
Results: Seven of the twelve questions assessing the attitudes of the PT students toward PTAs were significantly more positive. The five that were not significantly different all trended to a more positive attitude. The largest changes were seen in questions regarding supervision and communication.
Conclusions: This intra-professional educational experience helped shape more positive attitudes toward PTAs and the PT-PTA relationship in second-year PT students.
Clinical Relevance: Utilizing intra-professional educational experiences during their education may better prepare PTs to navigate the preferred PT-PTA relationship in clinical practice.