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Meron G.1, Levran I.2
1Clalit Health Services, Physiotherapy, Jerusalem, Israel, 2Clalit Health Services, Pysiotherapy, Tel Aviv, Israel
Background: Clalit is the largest health-care organization in Israel that serves 4.3 million members and provides clinical training programmes throughout the country for physiotherapy students from 5 different universities, each has it´s own curriculum. During 2014, approximately 370 students were trained within Clalit, however the clinical training process was not standardized across each unit. Clalit identified the importance of the clinical instructor and defined it as a key roles required to promote the physical therapy profession.
A clinical training director was appointed to develop and oversee the programme.
A clinical training director was appointed to develop and oversee the programme.
Purpose: 1. Standardization of the clinical training programme framework.
2. Improving the instructors´ compliance for clinical training.
2. Improving the instructors´ compliance for clinical training.
Methods: Initially a six-statement survey was conducted in order to clarify the instructors perceptions and attitudes regarding the clinical training process, and to identify their satisfaction with the support given by the organization. The statements were validated by the Clalit research unit and the survey was anonymously administered through a link to all the instructors. The level of agreement with each statement was rated between 1 (do not agree at all) and 5 (strongly agree). Data regarding the instructors´ level of seniority and areas of specialization were collected as well. Ethical approval was granted by the Clalit Ethics Committee. The first survey was answered by 124 out of 200 instructors and based on the survey results an intervention programme was developed and implemented over several stages including:
- Appointing regional clinical training coordinators and developing educational
programmes for them.
- Defining working procedures for the clinical instructors.
- Performing an annual seminar and funding additional courses.
- Having regional instructors meetings.
- Developing a guidance document concerning contents and goals of the
clinical training programme in each section.
- Providing internet forums and accessible data base.
Nine months after the first administration, the survey was administered again.
Results: 134 out of 220 instructors answered the second survey. There was a significant improvement in the mean scores of all statements from 20.9±4.1 to 24.2±3.3 (p0.000). The mean total score of the experienced instructors (22.68±3.59) was significantly lower than for both the new instructors, (24.68±3.05 p=0.019); and the mid seniority instructors (24.57±3.14 p=0.015); Moreover, for the experienced instructors there was no significant difference in the total score between the two surveys.
The amount of students instructed in Clalit increased significantly by 13% from 370 students during 2014-2015 to 420 students during 2015-2016.
Conclusion(s): The intervention performed over nine months significantly improved the clinical instructors´ satisfaction regarding the support given by the organization. However, the results suggest there is a need to consider how to address the low level of satisfaction of the experienced instructors.
Implications: A lack of places for clinical training is a deteriorating problem schools in Israel have to deal with. The growth of clinical training in Clalit helps to solve this problem. In addition, we assume the professional level of the physiotherapy services improves. In the future it is necessary to examine the connection between the clinical training and the quality of the profession and the clinical training itself.
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Education
Ethics approval: Approved by Clalit Research Ethics Committee, Israel
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
