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Lo K1, Curtis H2, Francis Cracknell A1
1Monash University, Department of Physiotherapy, Melbourne, Australia, 2Caulfield Hospital, Alfred Health, Physiotherapy Department, Melbourne, Australia
Background: Physiotherapists work satisfaction is affected by supervising students with fitness to practise (FTP) issues. FTP issues include those regarding clinical competence, professionalism, and physical and/or mental health. The research question was "How do we support the supervision of students with FTP issues more effectively?
Purpose: This project explored strategies that support the supervision of students with FTP issues.
Methods: A qualitative study of two focus groups. Participants included attendees at a Personally Arranged Learning Session (PeArL) at the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) Conference, Melbourne, 2013 and attendees at the Clinical Education Managers Australia and New Zealand (CEMANZ) meeting in 2015. The PeArL session was a five minute presentation and a facilitated discussion around three questions 1.What strategies support clinical educators' wellbeing when managing students with FTP issues? 2. How can we create a culture that is supportive of clinician wellbeing? 3. What can educators do in their daily practice to support their wellbeing. At a focus group on student FTP at the CEMANZ meeting participants were asked two questions “What do other universities do? What needs further work?” Written notes were recorded. Data was recoded independently by investigators (HC and KL) and analysed and assigned to themes.
Results:
At the PeArLs meeting there were 45 participants and at the CEMANZ meeting there were 20 participants.Thematic analysis revealed the following key points.
1. Clinical educators felt mental health issues were more challenging to ascertain and manage than competency issues.
2. Clinical educators felt staff members needed peer support and supportive relationships with universities were important.
3. Early identification, feed forward information, educator preparation and regular breaks for clinical educators were important supportive strategies.
4. Clinical Education Managers differed in opinion with respect to issues around inherent requirements, reporting, management of FTP issues, preparation for clinical placement and assessment of communication skills.
Conclusion(s): FTP issues involving students are complex, multifactorial and require further research. Support strategies for educators and university staff are important
Implications: There is potential to create consistency across Australia and New Zealand in managing students with FTP issues, especially in light of the new Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Further research is required into strategies to support wellbeing, minimise burnout and optimise work satisfaction in physiotherapy clinical educators. Approaches are also required to support clinical educators who are supporting students with mental health issues and the student remediation process. Given the challenges of health professional remediation, rigorous approaches to both the development and evaluation of remediation interventions are required.
Keywords: Clinical Education, Fitness to Practise, Health Enhancement
Funding acknowledgements: There are no funding acknowledgements
Purpose: This project explored strategies that support the supervision of students with FTP issues.
Methods: A qualitative study of two focus groups. Participants included attendees at a Personally Arranged Learning Session (PeArL) at the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) Conference, Melbourne, 2013 and attendees at the Clinical Education Managers Australia and New Zealand (CEMANZ) meeting in 2015. The PeArL session was a five minute presentation and a facilitated discussion around three questions 1.What strategies support clinical educators' wellbeing when managing students with FTP issues? 2. How can we create a culture that is supportive of clinician wellbeing? 3. What can educators do in their daily practice to support their wellbeing. At a focus group on student FTP at the CEMANZ meeting participants were asked two questions “What do other universities do? What needs further work?” Written notes were recorded. Data was recoded independently by investigators (HC and KL) and analysed and assigned to themes.
Results:
At the PeArLs meeting there were 45 participants and at the CEMANZ meeting there were 20 participants.Thematic analysis revealed the following key points.
1. Clinical educators felt mental health issues were more challenging to ascertain and manage than competency issues.
2. Clinical educators felt staff members needed peer support and supportive relationships with universities were important.
3. Early identification, feed forward information, educator preparation and regular breaks for clinical educators were important supportive strategies.
4. Clinical Education Managers differed in opinion with respect to issues around inherent requirements, reporting, management of FTP issues, preparation for clinical placement and assessment of communication skills.
Conclusion(s): FTP issues involving students are complex, multifactorial and require further research. Support strategies for educators and university staff are important
Implications: There is potential to create consistency across Australia and New Zealand in managing students with FTP issues, especially in light of the new Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Further research is required into strategies to support wellbeing, minimise burnout and optimise work satisfaction in physiotherapy clinical educators. Approaches are also required to support clinical educators who are supporting students with mental health issues and the student remediation process. Given the challenges of health professional remediation, rigorous approaches to both the development and evaluation of remediation interventions are required.
Keywords: Clinical Education, Fitness to Practise, Health Enhancement
Funding acknowledgements: There are no funding acknowledgements
Topic: Education: clinical; Professional practice: other; Mental health
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Monash University
Ethics committee: Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics number: CF10/1321 – 2010000703.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
