Entrustment: A New Paradigm for Physical Therapist Assistant Student Outcome Assessment
Purpose:
The purpose of this session is to introduce the concept of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) to physical therapist assistant (PTA) educators and to provide a forum to consider how they could be beneficial in PTA education (in both the academic and clinical settings).
Methods and/or Description of Project:
5 min - Introduction
10 min – Competency Based Education considerations
10 min - Small group identify core competencies for PTAs
10 min – Entrustable Professional Activities – defined and described
10 min – Small group work – identify list of EPAs for PTAs at graduation
10 min – Implications for curricular and instructional design
10 min – Implications for clinical education
10 min – Small group discussion of implications
10 min – Q & A
5 min – Conclusion
Results/Outcomes:
Participants be able begin to incorporate the concept of entrustment into their PTA curriculum and provide entrustment language to their clinical instructors to facilitate better communication and decision making related to student progression and readiness for graduation.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme:
This topic clearly connects with the conference theme as physical therapy educators have recently considered the “New World of Opportunity” in utilizing EPAs as part of various aspects of professional development. This session emphasizes the sub-theme of “Charting a New Course” by considering how use of EPAs in PTA education can guide student outcome assessment and their potential for adding a new lens for graduate expectations. The session will also touch on the theme of “Building Bridges for the Future through Curricular and Clinical Innovations” by considering ways the entrustment model can facilitate a share vision of student outcomes between academic and clinical faculty and their potential to provide a more intuitive method of assessment students’ clinical abilities.