TRANSFORMING UK PHYSIOTHERAPY PRACTICE-BASED LEARNING THROUGH THE COMMON PLACEMENT ASSESSMENT FORM - UPTAKE AND APPLICABILITY ACROSS ALL AREAS OF PRACTICE

¹Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, London, United Kingdom

Background: In January 2020, 42 different physiotherapy placement assessment forms were in use across 54 United Kingdom (UK) universities. Many of these forms were not applicable across all four pillars of physiotherapy practice – clinical, leadership, research and education.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) saw opportunity to transform practice-based learning by creating one form. One form that could be used by all learners and across all pillars of practice. This enabled prioritisation to be placed on the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed of the entire future physiotherapy workforce to thrive in modern, complex and diverse UK health care systems.
Following multiple stake-holder involvement, a 5 month pilot-phase and regulatory approval, the Common Placement Assessment Form (CPAF) was launched in September 2021.

Purpose: The aim of our study was two-fold;

1. To explore how many UK universities running a physiotherapy programme had adopted CPAF
2. To assess its applicability across the four pillars of physiotherapy practice

Methods: A survey was developed in conjunction with members of the CPAF working group and disseminated to the entire population of interest; all UK universities running a physiotherapy programme. Programme and practice-based learning leads were specifically targeted via email. The survey was open for 6 weeks between May and June 2022 and consisted of 9 questions that enabled open, closed, qualitative and quantitative responses.

Results: 54 of 58 universities responded to the survey (93% response rate). Of these respondents;

• 96% (n=52) planned to be using CPAF in September 2022
• 98% (n= 53) planned to use CPAF from January 2023
  • This equates to over 6,500 UK physiotherapy students
• 100% using CPAF report all students successfully assessed against all 10 learning domains regardless of placement setting

1 university stated they had no plans to transition, detailing a desire to wait until they have a suitable electronic platform to host it on as their reason. We do not have information relating to specific placement settings

Conclusions: This data clearly demonstrates the successful uptake of CPAF across UK universities. This was essential to its ambition.
The applicability of CPAF across all areas of physiotherapy practice is particularly exciting for the evolution of our profession. It opens up more diversity in placement settings, better reflecting current health care provision and providing more opportunity to see physiotherapy through a range of different lenses. Not only will this inspire future careers but also offer an understanding of the breadth of the profession.
Amongst others, CPAF features learning domains centred on population health, anti-discriminatory practice and leadership. The data gathered indicates successful assessment of these skills, instilling their importance amongst students and practice alike and enabling collaborative learning.

Implications: A standardised way of assessing students on placement with the key knowledge, skills and behaviours of the future workforce at its core will influence future physiotherapy practice. More students being assessed the same way means more ability to shape what is important to the profession as it continues to evolve. Further analysis into specific placement settings and user feedback will be required going forwards.

Funding acknowledgements: No funding acknowledgements required.

Keywords:
Practice-based learning
Assessment
Placements

Topics:
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Education
Professional practice: other

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: Ethics was not required as it was an evaluation of an educational tool and no personal data was collected. It describes innovative ways in which methds have been adapted t meet the changing needs of practice.