INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION OF MCKENZIE INSTITUTE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM: INFLUENCE ON EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

Y. Body¹, A. Allen Parrish¹, M. Ganesan¹

¹University of St Augustine for Health Sciences, Doctorate of Physical Therapy, San Marcos, United States

Background: Continuing education experiences for physical therapists is highly variable. Despite most states requiring a specific number of continuing education hours to meet licensure renewal requirements, little is known regarding the consistency of academic performance in continuing education programs with clinical oversight. Evidence suggests participants in continuing education programs that include clinical oversight and formalized reinforcement yield statistically significant outcomes in improving disability in patients with neck pain. The McKenzie Institute International (MII) follows a standardized, formal educational curriculum throughout the globe. The MII credentialing examination is the international standard for all branches consisting of multi-modal assessment, with written and practical components assessing clinical knowledge and skills developed throughout the post-graduate course curriculum.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate international consistency of academic performance in both written and practical assessments in a standardized curriculum.

Methods: In this quantitative retrospective study, archival data of 21 countries was retrieved from the 2015-2020 MII international credentialing examinations. Data of countries that completed at least 4 consecutive years of examinations were included in the study. Seven countries including USA, Sweden, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, Germany, and France were included in the study. Both the written and practical exam passing percentage of the student from 4 consecutive years were used for the analysis. A Kruskal Wallis H-test was used to analyze the data using IBM SPSS version 26. The post-hoc comparison included Bonferroni adjustment for the multiple comparison. A Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the difference between the written and practical performance in each country.

Results: There was no significant difference in the passing performance of the written scores between the seven countries H₍₆₎ = 11.08; p=.086.However, the practical scores were significantly different H₍₆₎= 13.35; p=.03 between the countries . The adjusted post-hoc comparison revealed that only the German practitioners passing percentage (97±6.0) was significantly higher p=.044 than the USA (69.25±5.5). There were no significant differences between the passing percentage of written exam and practical exam in all the 7 countries.

Conclusions: Standardized MII credentialing examination demonstrates a consistent passing performance internationally with the written examination in all the countries.The practical examination was consistent except Germany compared to USA. Potential reasons for practical examination variability may be due to additional support prior to the examination such as review course as well as lack of consistency among the practical examiners. Further studies should evaluate practical examiner consistency and impact of patient outcomes from clinicians participating in standardized continuing education curriculums.

Implications: The McKenzie Institute International educational curriculum meets several of the proposed criteria for continuing education (CE) reform and serves as a good model for exploring international standardization of continuing education programs. As physical therapists and other healthcare professionals attempt to choose CE courses across the globe, information regarding international consistency in academic performance helps establish a reliable framework of a pedagogical model for continuing education courses. Establishing a framework for continuing education courses helps strengthen the profession and adds value to clinician investment in continuing education courses.

Funding acknowledgements: None

Keywords:
Education
Physical Therapy
Standardized Test

Topics:
Education: continuing professional development
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: The University of St Augustine for Health Sciences

Committee: Institutional Review Board

Ethics number: 0323A-21