Looking Beyond the Cognitive Domain: A Pilot Study Exploring Student Professional Development
Purpose: The Physical Therapist Clinical Performance Instrument (PT-CPI) is widely used by academic programs to determine readiness for clinical practice. The PT-CPI assesses students on 18 performance criteria across 3 domains: professional practice, patient management, and practice management.1 Whereas patient and practice management covers clinical reasoning and skills, professionalism captures a wide-range of behaviors: safety; professional behavior; compliance with ethical, legal, and professional standards; cultural humility; communicating sensitively; and participating in self-assessment. Professionalism PT-CPI scores can signal deficits that could pose a risk to patients, even if the student has an academic understanding of anatomy and practice.2 Thus, understanding which variables may be related to PT-CPI professionalism is an important area of inquiry for education and clinical training. To date, few investigations have examined possible correlates of PT-CPI scores, aside from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) or the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE).3-10 However, researchers have found no significant association between the PT-CPI and the GRE or NPTE. Thus, the PT-CPI may assess a different skill-set than the qualities captured by cognitive/academic measures. Professionalism, as measured by the PT-CPI, may capture underlying personal characteristics (i.e., personality traits) that promote professional behavior. However, researchers have yet to examine personality factors as potential correlates. Accordingly, the present study examined PT-CPI professionalism scores in relation to eight different personality traits: (1) honesty-humility, (2) emotionality, (3) extraversion, (4) agreeableness, (5) conscientiousness, (6) openness to experience, (7) hope, and (8) grit.Methods/Description: After IRB approval, DPT students from a Southern university (N = 51) completed validated measures of personality traits: HEXACO 60,11 the Adult Trait Hope Scale,12,13 and the Grit Scale.14 Correlational analyses examined the relationships between these responses and the corresponding PT-CPI self and clinical instructor (CI) scores.Results/Outcomes: Bivariate correlations revealed that greater agreeableness and less emotionality were significantly associated with CI ratings for most aspects of professionalism. However, more openness to experience was also related to higher cultural competence, and less extraversion was related to higher safety behaviors. Higher levels of hope were related to student rated higher communication and professional development behaviors. All relationships were moderate (r = .28 - .37).Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Our Leadership Landscape: Perspectives from the Ground Level to 30,000 Feet: Findings suggest that personality traits are related to student and CI ratings of professional behavior. This study highlights the importance of assessing non-cognitive traits in student outcomes as personality traits reflected either higher or lower levels of professional behavior and suggests that personality trait screening has potential implications for professional development.References: 1. American Physical Therapy Association. Physical Therapist Clinical Performance Instrument for Students. Alexandria, VA: American Physical Therapy Association; 2006. 2. Hayes KW, Huber G, Rogers J, Sanders B. 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