Early Clinical Education Outcomes for Students in a Hybrid Online/on-Campus Pathway
Purpose: A well-established entry-level DPT program has recently expanded to include a hybrid online/on-campus (HOOC) pathway of curriculum delivery, in addition to the on-campus only (OCO) pathway. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how students in a HOOC mode of curriculum delivery performed during their first two clinical education (CE) experiences.
Description: The sequence of CE for students in years 1 and 2 of the HOOC pathway is the same as for students in the OCO pathway: a 2-week, full-time (FT) integrated CE experience in spring semester year 1, a 6-week, FT intermediate CE experience in summer semester year 2, and a 2-week, FT integrated CE experience in fall year 2. For the 2-week CE experiences, students are evaluated using a 4-point descriptive rating scale: 4-Above Expected, 3-Appropriate, 2-Needs Work, 1-Red Flag. Students are evaluated by the clinical instructor (CI) in seven categories as noted in table 1. There is also an open text field to allow narrative comments about student performance. For the 6-week CE experience, students are evaluated using the CPI.
Summary of Use: For the first 2-week CE experience, 49 evaluations were completed for 46 students, reflecting 3 students who had 2 CIs. Scores were averaged for each category. Academic program expectations were that students would be marked at least 3-appropriate for all categories. There were no marks of 1-red flag for any student in any category.
Table 1 (has been removed) Examples of comments about strengths: “Student has a strong understanding of anatomy,” “area of strength is critical thinking as noted when determining if an intervention is effective,” “seeks out knowledge independently and constantly asks relevant clinical questions.”
Examples of comments about areas needing improvement: “proved to be appropriately prepared with course work, but I do recommend working on recall of anatomy and orthopedic content,” “shows eagerness to learn by asking questions, however does not demonstrate initiative to find answers independently,” “required constant nudging to get more involved in the social side of patient care and struggled to come out of his comfort zone.”
The 6-week experience is scheduled for July 8th through August 16th, 2019, and we will be collecting data from the ratings and narrative comments from the CPI. The fall 2-week experience is scheduled for December 2nd through December 13th, 2019. We will include this additional data in our CSM presentation.
Importance to Members: Concerns have been expressed by members of the physical therapy community related to student readiness for CE experiences for students choosing an HOOC pathway. This is relevant to members as it shows students in an HOOC pathway met performance expectations of their CIs in their early CE experience and are prepared to enter the clinic.