Building Bridges through an Innovative Clinical Education Consortium: Collaboration, Mentorship, Education, and Research
Purpose:
Clinical education consortia serve to bring together individuals with a shared interest in physical therapist clinical education. There are currently 22 consortia in the United States, each with different structures and functions. As reported at the 2nd Annual Regional Consortium Session at the Education Leadership Conference in 2017, 68% include clinician involvement, and in many of those, clinicians serve a limited role. Only 32% of consortium reported plans to increase clinician-academic partnerships or clinician engagement.
Communication and collaboration between clinical and academic partners is essential to a successful clinical education program. Clinical education happens in the clinic, therefore the needs of the clinical partners must be considered when developing a clinical education program. Clinicians must be empowered to participate in discussions with academic representatives in order to ensure quality of professional practice preparation of the next generation of physical therapists.
Our clinical education consortium serves as a forum to bring clinical and academic educators together for a shared purpose. The consortium has facilitated professional development of its members through collaboration and successful mentorship of CIs, SCCEs, and DCEs in their multifaceted roles. The organizational structure and culture of the consortium has facilitated its members to serve the clinical education community through educational programming, scholarly activities, and leadership roles on the local and national levels. Strategic role delineation and committee development has allowed for efficient and focused progress towards the consortium’s mission and vision.
The purpose of this presentation is to assist participants to develop strategies to enhance their own clinical education consortium in alignment with their unique mission and vision.
Methods and/or Description of Project:
Following a long-standing culture of collaboration between academic and clinical partners, consortium members participated in a year-long strategic planning process aimed at clearly defining their mission and vision, establishing goals and objectives, and aligning their committee structure and financial planning to those elements.
The mission and vision were used to guide creation of Research, Public Relations, Professional Development, Finance, Awards, Nominating, and Executive Committees, each inclusive of clinical and academic representation. Each committee functions autonomously, with its own objectives. Tri-annual consortium meetings are held at either clinical sites or academic campuses to bring all committees together with the larger consortium community. This structure ensures multiple leadership opportunities and a continuous emphasis on growth. In addition, an active listserv facilitates dissemination of important information and provides an avenue for ongoing collaboration and discussion.
Results/Outcomes:
The working committees that were developed to address the strategic plan have successfully accomplished a series of important initiatives, including: • Development of a formal “Clinical Member-at-Large” position was added to the Executive Committee to ensure at least one clinical partner is participating at the highest level of consortium leadership.
• Continuing education opportunities over the last 3 years have included: 3 clinical education symposiums, sponsoring level I Credentialed Clinical Instructor Programs, and development of web-based clinical education resources for CIs and SCCEs.
• Several collaborative research projects have been completed, resulting in manuscripts published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Education and presentations at state and national levels.
• Consortium members were co-authors on the white papers that preceded the 2014 Clinical Education Summit.
• Several members have been selected to serve on national clinical education-focused task forces.
• The consortium has provided annual funding for clinician attendance at ELC.
• Biannual consortia-funded research grants have been established and awarded to collaborative clinical-education research projects.
Although these are tangible results, some of the most important outcomes from this consortium are less quantifiable, but equally, if not more important. The shared commitment, respect, and problem-solving, make this consortium valuable to its members and to the greater physical therapy education community.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme:
This presentation directly relates to the conference theme: BUILDING BRIDGES FOR THE FUTURE THROUGH CURRICULAR AND CLINICAL INNOVATIONS. We will present a model of a successful bridge that has supported innovation, enhanced educational research, encouraged mentorship, and strengthened collaborations between academic and clinical stakeholders. Building similar partnerships around the country is a critical step in creating meaningful change in physical therapist clinical education.
Participants will leave the session with valuable strategies that can be immediately implemented within their clinical education consortia, including collaboration and mentorship towards a shared clinical education scholarly agenda and quality clinical education educational programming.