File
Schwarz B1, Mire E2, Hartos J3
1University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Physical Therapy, Fort Worth, United States, 2University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Student Affairs, Fort Worth, United States, 3University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Fort Worth, United States
Background: A student's experience in clinical rotation has been found to be impacted by supervision, stress, anxiety, and assessment. Studies have been done in other health-related fields to explore the stressors that impact students during clinical experiences (CE) and in some cases that data has been used to develop stress reduction interventions. There is substantial research on the general stress levels of students in various healthcare education programs and the negative impact of this stress on students' performance. Physical therapy (PT) students, compared to age-matched non-students, typically experience higher levels of academic, personal, and financial stress during the program, with academic stress being reported as having the most impact. While personal and financial stressors are difficult to address, academic stressors can be reduced through actions by instructors and programs. Knowledge of stressors related to CE is necessary to be able to address and minimize the academic stress experienced by students.
Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to identify the most prevalent stressors among PT students heading into the initial EC with the purpose of identification and subsequent reduction or alleviation.
Methods: A list of stressors was compiled from the literature and review of documents from existing educational process for PT CE. An initial list of stressors was compiled, 3rd year PT students were recruited to rate the items on frequency and level of stressfulness. From that data, researchers determined which items were: High stress/low frequency, High stress/high frequency, Low stress/high frequency. Low stress/low frequency items were dropped. Remaining items were developed into a survey, which was issued to 45 1st-year PT students prior to their initial CE.
Results: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Top stressors were: being thrown into patient care before feeling ready, being put on the spot in front of patients or colleagues, needing skills or information to which they had little or no exposure, not being able to answer questions when asked, and fear of making a mistake treating a patient.
Conclusion(s): Items that produced the greatest amount of stress for students included those related to their own knowledge and preparedness. These items are things that are within the students' personal realm of control. The low stress were things were primarily beyond the student's control, such as those related to the location of their clinical site. The results are encouraging for students and educators and programming can be developed to address confidence and self-efficacy.
Implications: Knowing what stressors students experience going into initial clinical rotations allows education programs and student affairs the opportunity to develop and implement targeted programs to address the most commonly perceived stressors by PT students. Creating programs to address specific and relevant stressors provides an opportunity to influence the wellbeing of PT students as they enter into clinical experiences. When students have increased self-efficacy and are able to shift their focus from personal emotion to patient care, they have been shown to perform better and be more active in their learning during clinical experiences.
Keywords: clinical education, stress, students
Funding acknowledgements: None.
Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to identify the most prevalent stressors among PT students heading into the initial EC with the purpose of identification and subsequent reduction or alleviation.
Methods: A list of stressors was compiled from the literature and review of documents from existing educational process for PT CE. An initial list of stressors was compiled, 3rd year PT students were recruited to rate the items on frequency and level of stressfulness. From that data, researchers determined which items were: High stress/low frequency, High stress/high frequency, Low stress/high frequency. Low stress/low frequency items were dropped. Remaining items were developed into a survey, which was issued to 45 1st-year PT students prior to their initial CE.
Results: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Top stressors were: being thrown into patient care before feeling ready, being put on the spot in front of patients or colleagues, needing skills or information to which they had little or no exposure, not being able to answer questions when asked, and fear of making a mistake treating a patient.
Conclusion(s): Items that produced the greatest amount of stress for students included those related to their own knowledge and preparedness. These items are things that are within the students' personal realm of control. The low stress were things were primarily beyond the student's control, such as those related to the location of their clinical site. The results are encouraging for students and educators and programming can be developed to address confidence and self-efficacy.
Implications: Knowing what stressors students experience going into initial clinical rotations allows education programs and student affairs the opportunity to develop and implement targeted programs to address the most commonly perceived stressors by PT students. Creating programs to address specific and relevant stressors provides an opportunity to influence the wellbeing of PT students as they enter into clinical experiences. When students have increased self-efficacy and are able to shift their focus from personal emotion to patient care, they have been shown to perform better and be more active in their learning during clinical experiences.
Keywords: clinical education, stress, students
Funding acknowledgements: None.
Topic: Education: clinical
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: University of North Texas Health Science Center
Ethics committee: Office of Research Compliance Institutional Review Board
Ethics number: 2017-050
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
