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Singh B1, Sharma A2, Singh R3, Taylor J1, Camilleri D1
1California State University, Physical Therapy, Fresno, United States, 2Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, United States, 3Loma Linda University, Physical Therapy, Los Angeles, United States
Background: The National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE) is a national licensure board exam for physical therapist candidates to qualify to practice in the United States. The NPTE consists of 250 multiple choice questions and candidates are required to score 75% to pass the exam. While the pass rates for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students from the accredited schools is more than 90% on the first attempt, the pass rates for foreign-trained therapists is less than 40%.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine reasons for low pass rates in foreign-trained physical therapy graduates.
Methods: The University's Institutional Review Board approved the study. Graduates from DPT programs in United States and foreign-trained physical therapists approved by Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy, to take the NPTE were recruited for the study. A survey was developed to examine contributing factors for success on the NPTE. The four section survey was filled by 600 students who that met the inclusion criteria. The first section collected demographic data on country of entry-level education completed. The second section asked for previous NPTE attempts and scores out of 600. The third section constituted questions on student current study approaches, textbooks used, and other study support for preparation. The last section asked the subjects to list their weakness in the content areas. The data was divided into DPT graduates and foreign trained graduates. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and t-tests were performed to determine differences between two groups. The level of significance was set at p 0.05.
Results: 523 subjects responded to all the survey questions. 260 subjects identified as DPT and 263 subjects identified as foreign-trained students based on their first PT degree. Demographically, most foreign trained students were from India (104), followed by Philippines (73), and Colombia (32).
The results show a difference in the number of subjects who took the practice exams to support their preparation. Specifically, while 96.1 percent of DPT students reported taking the Practice Exam and Assessment Tool (PEAT), only 58.5% of foreign-trained graduates took the PEAT before appearing for their first NPTE. The PEAT is a paid product offered by the FSBPT and uses a set of practice questions to help prepare students the NPTE. It should be noted that the FSBPT reports a 99.3% correlation between PEAT and the NPTE scores.
Foreign-trained students reported studying more (6.8+/- 2.1) hours than the DPT students (4.9+/-1.6 hours). Content wise, foreign-trained students picked 'Other Systems' as their weakest area whereas DPT graduates picked Cardio-pulmonary as their weakest content area.
Conclusion(s): Taking the PEAT exam offered by FSBPT seems to be a key differentiating factor between foreign trained and DPT graduates NPTE pass rates.
Implications: Thousands of candidates takes the NPTE every year to get licensed in United States. Understanding the factors that negatively or positively affect a student's ability to successfully pass the NPTE on the first attempt will provide important insights for both educational and licensure process.
Keywords: Licensure, NPTE, Physical Therapy
Funding acknowledgements: None
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine reasons for low pass rates in foreign-trained physical therapy graduates.
Methods: The University's Institutional Review Board approved the study. Graduates from DPT programs in United States and foreign-trained physical therapists approved by Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy, to take the NPTE were recruited for the study. A survey was developed to examine contributing factors for success on the NPTE. The four section survey was filled by 600 students who that met the inclusion criteria. The first section collected demographic data on country of entry-level education completed. The second section asked for previous NPTE attempts and scores out of 600. The third section constituted questions on student current study approaches, textbooks used, and other study support for preparation. The last section asked the subjects to list their weakness in the content areas. The data was divided into DPT graduates and foreign trained graduates. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and t-tests were performed to determine differences between two groups. The level of significance was set at p 0.05.
Results: 523 subjects responded to all the survey questions. 260 subjects identified as DPT and 263 subjects identified as foreign-trained students based on their first PT degree. Demographically, most foreign trained students were from India (104), followed by Philippines (73), and Colombia (32).
The results show a difference in the number of subjects who took the practice exams to support their preparation. Specifically, while 96.1 percent of DPT students reported taking the Practice Exam and Assessment Tool (PEAT), only 58.5% of foreign-trained graduates took the PEAT before appearing for their first NPTE. The PEAT is a paid product offered by the FSBPT and uses a set of practice questions to help prepare students the NPTE. It should be noted that the FSBPT reports a 99.3% correlation between PEAT and the NPTE scores.
Foreign-trained students reported studying more (6.8+/- 2.1) hours than the DPT students (4.9+/-1.6 hours). Content wise, foreign-trained students picked 'Other Systems' as their weakest area whereas DPT graduates picked Cardio-pulmonary as their weakest content area.
Conclusion(s): Taking the PEAT exam offered by FSBPT seems to be a key differentiating factor between foreign trained and DPT graduates NPTE pass rates.
Implications: Thousands of candidates takes the NPTE every year to get licensed in United States. Understanding the factors that negatively or positively affect a student's ability to successfully pass the NPTE on the first attempt will provide important insights for both educational and licensure process.
Keywords: Licensure, NPTE, Physical Therapy
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Education; Education: continuing professional development; Globalisation: health systems, policies & strategies
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: California State University
Ethics committee: Department of Physical Therapy IRB Committee
Ethics number: 132
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
