Chaudry A.1, Karges J.2, Beasley E.1, Peterson C.3
1Langston University, School of Physical Therapy, Langston, Oklahoma, United States, 2University of South Dakota, Department of Physical Therapy, Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, 3University Of The Pacific, Physical Therapy, Stockton, California, United States
Background: Clinical Education in Physiotherapy programs has evolved over the years to becoming increasingly student centered wherein student assessment and feedback are a critical component of the teaching and learning process. A typical physiotherapy curriculum though includes two components: didactic and clinical. Didactic learning is assessed by trained academic faculty through a variety of techniques. However, for the clinical component, the student works under the direction and supervision of a clinical physiotherapist who may not be an educator and/or lack formal training in education. Subsequently, the clinical physiotherapist may not assess student performance in the clinic holistically. It is, therefore, important that physiotherapy education programs devise additional methods of assessment to accurately gage student learning in the clinic. One such method is reflection. Research indicates that reflection is a key ingredient for developing expert clinical reasoning skills. However, seeds for engaging students in reflection must be sown early for maximum carryover.
Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to describe innovative intentional critical self-reflective practice tools employed by a physiotherapy education program to engage its students participating in clinical education internships in consistent structured reflection of their clinical performance, clinical peer/patient interactions, critical thinking skills, and proactive decision making to enhance the student's learning during their clinical internship experience.
Methods: Students enrolled in the physiotherapy education program were required to participate in formative and summative intentional critical self-reflection of their clinical internship. The formative step involved the student in completing a structured weekly reflective activity in the form of a student journal with specific prompts for completion. The prompts required students to assess learning environment, peer/patient interactions, and analyze key learning during the week. The journals were submitted to director of clinical education (DCE) at the students educational institution who reviewed journals weekly to determine areas needing prompt intervention. The specific journal prompts were also linked to a grading rubric utilized to objectively assess student cumulative journal responses. The summative reflection activity occurred at conclusion of internship during a clinical education seminar in which the DCE engaged students in an overall collective summative structured critical reflection discussion session over the completed clinical internship with their peers.
Results: The structured approach to intentional critical reflective practice for clinical internships has been successfully used by physiotherapy program for over 5 years with overwhelming student compliance with format. Also, employing a structured reflective process for post internship seminar peer group reflection on entire professional experience has yielded extensive meaningful class discussions and recommendations for future action.
Conclusion(s): Best practices in clinical education require inclusion of student self-reflection as a critical component of the learning process. However, seeds for engaging student physiotherapists in self-reflection must be sown early. Thus it is imperative for physiotherapy educational programs to provide students with the tools and the environment that facilitates intentional critical self-reflection of clinical learning.
Implications: The structured approach to intentional reflective practice has universal application as it may be easily modified to meet needs of any physiotherapy experiential learning course across the globe.
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: None required
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
