Exploring Excellence in Pediatric Physical Therapy Education through Collaboration and Utilization of a Mixed Methods Approach
Purpose: Educational research is needed to advance the physical therapy profession. Researchers face significant challenges in their attempt to construct new knowledge in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Challenges include limited funding, lack of training, and lack of networking among educational researchers. Pediatric physical therapy educational research is limited. Recently, the Journal of Physical Therapy Education published a special series of pediatric educational research. Over 60% of the articles published were method/model papers which suggests the need for research that has a broader scope and includes more than one institution. The 2016 Pediatric Education Summit II objectives were to educate participants on educational research theory and methodology, develop research priorities, establish collaborative educational research networks, and generate at least 3 research projects. The purposes of this platform are to: (1) share the process utilized to develop an educational research project between investigators from 6 universities and (2) identify the methods used to answer the research question, “What is excellence in pediatric physical therapy education?”Methods/Description: Seven investigators initiated the research process during Summit II, with 6 investigators continuing with the project. This process included utilization of biweekly/monthly conference calls, virtual meeting minutes, shared folders through cloud-based systems, goal-driven task assignments, exploration of internal and external funding sources, development of sub-groups, and face-to-face meetings at national conferences. The methods were modeled after the Jensen et al. (2017) study on excellence in physical therapist education. The methodology included the development of: nomination criteria of exemplar programs, nomination procedures and forms, an advisory committee, individual and group interview guides, a demographic questionnaire, and data analysis procedures. Investigators worked in teams to submit grants to internal and external funding sources.Results/Outcomes: Results have been multi-faceted. A subset of the research group completed a scoping review (ScR) to provide a foundation for the mixed methods study. This ScR was funded by the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy (APPT) and the manuscript has been submitted for publication. Other outcomes include the receipt of 3 internal grants from investigators’ universities and 1 external grant from APPT. Finally, a significant outcome of the study has been the ability of the 6 researchers to adhere to a tight timeline of expectations.Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Our Leadership Landscape: Perspectives from the Ground Level to 30,000 Feet: This platform demonstrates educational research in physical therapy from the ground up using collaborative networks and provides guidance on effective and efficient processes and methods used to answer relevant research questions to advance pediatric physical therapy education.References: Gwyer J, Hack L, Jensen GM, Segal R, Boissonnault W. Future directions for educational research in physical therapy. J Phys Ther Educ. 2015;29(4):3-4. Jensen GM, Nordstrom T, Mostrom E, Hack LM, Gwyer J. National study of excellence and innovation in physical therapist education: part 1-design, method, and results. Phys Ther. 2017;97(9):857-874. Kenyon LK, Birkmeier M, Anderson DK, Martin K. Innovation in pediatric clinical education: application of the essential competencies. Pediatr Phys Ther. 2015;27(2):178-186. Lundeen H, Moerchen V, Dannemiller L, Fiss A, Catalino T. What we have done and where we are going: Education Summit II and the journey toward excellence in pediatric physical therapy education. Presentation. APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy Annual Conference, November 2017, Cincinnati, OH. Rapport MJ, Furze J, Martin K, Schreiber J, Dannemiller LA, DiBiaso PA, Moerchen VA. Essential competencies in entry-level pediatric physical therapy education. Pediatr Phys Ther. 2014;26(1):7-18. Rapport MJ, Furze. Stepping OUT in Educational Research: Pediatric Physical Therapy Education has Learned to Walk. J Phys Ther Educ. 2017;31(2):95-96. Schreiber J, Goodgold S, Moerchen VA, Remec N, Aaron C, Kreger A. A Description of Professional Pediatric Physical Therapy Education. Pediatr Phys Ther. 2011;23(2):201-204.