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Mori B.1,2, Norman K.3, Brooks D.1, Herold J.4, Beaton D.5,6
1University of Toronto, Physical Therapy, Toronto, Canada, 2St. Michael's Hospital, Centre for Faculty Development, Toronto, Canada, 3Queen's University, Physical Therapy Program, School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Kingston, Canada, 4University of Toronto, Postgraduate Medical Education, Toronto, Canada, 5University of Toronto, Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, Toronto, Canada, 6St. Michael's Hospital, Musculoskeletal Health and Outcomes Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Toronto, Canada
Background: Clinical education is a core component of the Canadian university physiotherapy (PT) entry-to-practice curricula. Assessment of students during clinical experiences is a critical element of clinical education courses.
Purpose: Our purpose was to develop and explore the psychometric properties of the Canadian Physiotherapy Assessment of Clinical Performance (ACP). The ACP is to be used by PT students and their clinical instructors to describe the PT students' clinical performance behaviours as observed in the clinical education setting relative to what might be expected of a physiotherapist in Canada.
Methods: The ACP was pilot tested in 10 University PT programs in 2013. Both the ACP and the current tool at the time, the PT-CPI (Version 1997), were completed by clinical instructors supervising a PT student completing a clinical internship.
Results: The ACP was completed at midpoint (n=132) and final point (n=126) by clinical instructors assessing PT students´ performance during internships representing a variety of areas of practice. At the final point, the sample included ACPs completed on 55 junior, 30 intermediate and 41 senior students. The ACP demonstrated strong internal consistency as alpha coefficients for each role ranged from 0.94-0.99. Aligned items on the ACP and PT-CPI were significantly correlated (r=0.51-0.84). Senior PT students performed significantly better than intermediate students who performed better than junior students (p 0.0001). Effect sizes for mid to final point scores on the ACP ranged from 0.40-0.74. Participants were satisfied with the online education module and the ACP as indicated by satisfaction scores and qualitative comments.
Conclusion(s): Preliminary psychometric analyses of the ACP revealed evidence of strong reliability, construct validity and practicality of the ACP. The distribution of final point scores was different from midpoint scores and it was able to capture a progression of improvement across PT students´ development towards entry-level competence.
Implications: Based on our findings, we feel that the ACP can be used with confidence to assess Canadian PT students in clinical education during the entry to practice PT degree.
Funding acknowledgements: Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada and The Canadian Council of Physiotherapy University Programs
Topic: Education
Ethics approval: Primary approval by Research Ethics Board of the University of Toronto, as well as schools that participated in the pilot
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
