Development of an Innovative Training Program for Clinical Faculty Instructing in a Physical Therapy Program
Purpose: Competent clinical faculty (CF) are imperative for graduating safe doctor of physical therapy (DPT) practitioners.1,2 Defined as clinicians from the community who assist in lab-based classes, CF are often experts both in practice and as clinical instructors, yet are novice educators in the academic setting. Historically, CF work directly with students with no standardized training, which can lead to unnecessary variability in the delivery of content and potentially negative student learning outcomes.3-5 An absence of mentoring can also contribute to challenges in the transition between clinical and academic practice roles.6 Existing literature supports the need to prepare CF formally in the acquisition of adequate curricular knowledge, understanding of content-specific pedagogy, and development of feedback skills.3,4,6,7 This DPT program relied heavily on CF in the classroom to improve faculty to student ratios, yet students and core academic faculty identified inconsistent skillsets and non-uniform preparation of CF as a source of frustration. With a critical gap identified in the quality of leadership and instructional skills demonstrated by CF, core faculty created an evidence-based CF training program to enhance foundational teaching skills.Methods/Description: Core faculty in the academic program identified a leader to facilitate program development. Objectives for the program were to provide CF with training in specific pedagogy related to teaching novice learners and in effective strategies for provision of feedback and facilitation of student clinical reasoning. The program included two interactive training sessions and incorporated didactic content and case-specific practice. Perceived teaching confidence was measured on a 100-cm visual analogue scale and content knowledge was assessed with a multiple-choice test. Both outcomes were assessed before and 8 weeks after training.Results/Outcomes: The pilot program curriculum will be outlined at this session and results related to the assessment of this training program will be shared including quantitative data demonstrating positive change related to CF teaching confidence and content knowledge. Additionally, qualitative data will be reviewed, focusing on CF perceptions of program value and student perceptions of teaching consistency.Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Our Leadership Landscape: Perspectives from the Ground Level to 30,000 Feet: This CF training program speaks specifically to embedding leadership skills across clinical and didactic education. As both clinical and academic instructors, CF are the critical ground-level educators within DPT programs. In order to soar to greater heights in our DPT program, we initiated an innovative training program to improve CF proficiency by developing a strategic approach to enhancing teaching and feedback skills in the classroom. Perhaps by starting from the ground up, enhancing the educational leadership talents of our CF, we can create a foundation for consistency in student education and thereby PT practice in general.References: 1. Rice G. An Orientation Program for Clinical Adjunct Faculty. ABNF Journal. 2016;27(1):7-10. 2. Snider KT, Seffinger MA, Ferrill HP, Gish EE. Trainer-to-student ratios for teaching psychomotor skills in health care fields, as applied to osteopathic manipulative medicine. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2012;112(4):182-187. 3. Devlin M, Samarawickrema G. The Criteria of Effective Teaching in a Changing Higher Education Context. Higher Education Research and Development. 2010;29(2):111-124. 4.Dewald L. Building pedagogical intelligence in allied health: a primer. Internet J Allied Health Sci Pract. 2010;8(3):9-14. 5. Francis-Coad JMG, Hill A-MPM. Discovering What Experiences Physical Therapist Students Identify as Learning Facilitators in Practical Laboratories. J Phys Ther Educ. 2014;28(3):42-49. 6. Santisteban L, Egues AL. Cultivating adjunct faculty: strategies beyond orientation. Nursing Forum. 2014;49(3):152-158. 7. Steinert Y, Mann K, Centeno A, et al. A systematic review of faculty development initiatives designed to improve teaching effectiveness in medical education: BEME Guide No. 8. Med Teach. 2006;28(6):497-526.