Rindflesch, Aaron B

Reasonable accommodations in higher education are being more frequently requested by graduate occupational and physical therapy students within didactic and clinical contexts. Researchers aimed to describe the experiences of clinical educators in occupational and physical therapy mentoring graduate students with a disclosed accommodation during terminal clinical education, employing a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews and one-time electronic survey were completed. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted following the approach described by Braun and Clarke. Twelve occupational or physical therapy clinical educators participated in semi-structured interviews, each having mentored 1–2 students with a disclosed disability accommodation during a terminal clinical education experience. Four major thematic categories regarding accommodation use in terminal clinical emerged: 1) accommodation process, 2) team approach to accommodating, 3) fostering accommodations, and 4) ambiguity in facilitating accommodations. Clinical educators emphasized the importance of being informed about accommodations well in advance, adapting teaching methods, and maintaining regular communication between academic institutions, clinical sites, and students. Training for clinical educators on the disclosure process, legal obligations, and strategies for effective mentorship to ensure alignment of accommodation, academic requirements, and site expectations is essential.

Abstract Purpose Clinicians and scientists often take a different path in developing competence and confidence as educators compared with peers who have received formal pedagogical teaching. This study explores how award-winning health professions educators reflect on the development and fluctuation of their teaching self-efficacy over time. Guided by social cognitive theory, the study investigates how educators notice, make meaning of, and respond to diverse teaching-related experiences across their careers. Method Between May and August 2023, 31 Mayo Clinic educators in clinical medicine, basic science, and allied health who had been recognized for teaching excellence in the past 10 years were invited to participate in semistructured interviews. Each participant first completed a preinterview survey and created a graph of their teaching confidence over time, which served as an anchor for the interview discussion. Reflexive thematic analysis identified patterns in how participants described sources of fluctuation in teaching self-efficacy. Results Of the 31 invited educators, 21 (11 women, 10 men) took part in an interview. Educators described varied trajectories of teaching self-efficacy over time shaped by different experiences, interpretations, and instructional experimentation. Four themes were identified: (1) interpreting implicit and explicit feedback, (2) revising beliefs in response to successes and setbacks, (3) adapting to changing contexts, and (4) using social models to gauge effectiveness. Participants reported becoming more responsive to situational demands and learner needs over time. Conclusions For these award-winning educators, teaching self-efficacy was constructed and reconstructed through an adaptive, socially situated process of interpretation and reflection. The same events may have affected self-efficacy differently, depending on how individuals framed and acted on their experiences. Findings support a model that emphasizes adaptive expertise and offers implications for faculty development.

Abstract Background Student readiness for clinical education experiences is an important variable for clinical preceptors. Readiness has been reported from the viewpoints of clinicians, academic faculty, clinical preceptors, employers and novice graduate physical therapists. Perspectives from physical and occupational therapy students could better prepare preceptors in the acute care setting. Approach Thematic analysis was conducted following the approach described by Braun and Clarke. The purpose of this study was to describe physical and occupational therapy student perceptions of readiness for full‐time acute care clinical education experiences. Twenty‐one physical and occupational therapy students in process of completing full‐time clinical education experiences at a large academic medical centre were qualitatively interviewed in small groups. A two‐stage iterative process of thematic inquiry was used to induce themes about student readiness for full‐time acute care clinical experiences. Transcription, coding and thematic analysis were completed. Students also completed a one‐time questionnaire with demographic and learner characteristic scales. Findings Participants were on average 26.4 years old, predominantly female and White, and had completed one full‐time clinical education experience prior to participation. Four major thematic categories of student readiness for acute care clinical experiences emerged: (1) mindset and willingness; (2) knowledge and experience; (3) communication and collaboration; and (4) planning and prioritising. Implications Students report their readiness is facilitated by preceptors who can model flexibility, foster communication that promotes clinical reasoning, implement an orientation to the acute care culture and learning resources and scaffold roles and responsibilities to aid professional authority.

Students' description of factors contributing to a meaningful clinical experience in entry-level physical therapist professional education. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify student, clinical instructor (CI), and environmental characteristics and behaviors that make for positive clinical experiences as perceived by physical therapy students. PARTICIPANTS: Nine third-year physical therapist students from entry-level physial therapist education programs around the United States participated in this study. METHODS: In this phenomenologic study, participants were interviewed using open-ended questions designed to facilitate rich description. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, validated, and analyzed. RESULTS: Themes were identified through collaborative analysis using constant comparative coding. Students described student, CI, and environmental factors and behaviors that contribute to a quality clinical experience, including: the students' demonstration of initiative to prepare for the clinical experience and preparation after clinic hours; the importance of the CI's insight, allowing CIs to ascertain how much guidance to give in order to foster independence in the student; and the clinical environment's ability to welcome a student and provide the student with novel learning experiences. CONCLUSION: The student descriptions, including positive and negative examples shared by the interviewees, demonstrate essential characteristics that contribute to a positive clinical experience. Many of the factors identified by students can be influenced by student and CI training and preparation prior to the clinical experience.

Background and Purpose/Objective: Few studies have examined the efficacy of fall risk assessment tools for patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model (HFRM II) can distinguish patients who fell from those who did not fall in the inpatient HCT population. Methods: Observational study. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Academic medical center. Patients: Patients undergoing HCT who fell during the first 100 days posttransplant. Intervention: None. Measurements: Independent-sample t tests were performed to determine differences in HFRM II score, age, pulse, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, platelet count, hemoglobin concentration, and hematocrit for fallers compared with nonfallers. Chi-square tests of independence determined differences regarding sex, assistive device used on the day of fall, transplant type, and physical therapy. Logistic regression analysis detected odds of falling dependent on transplant type, pulse rate, and HFRM II score. Results: Forty-seven patients who fell within 100 days after HCT were control matched by transplant date with 2 nonfallers each. Significant differences included HFRM II mean score (5.36 for fallers vs 3.41 for nonfallers; t = 4.510, P < .001) and mean pulse rates (100.09 vs 88.70 bpm; t = 3.398, P = .001). Patients with allogeneic HCT were 3.46 times more likely to have fallen than those with autologous HCT (P = .007). Limitations: Potential selection bias of retrospective review. Conclusions: HCT patients with higher HFRM II scores, greater pulse rate, or allogeneic transplant were more likely to fall.

Medical professionals and public consumers expect that new physical therapy graduates possess cognitive, technical, and behavioral skills required to provide safe and high‐quality care to patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if a repertoire of ten professional behaviors assessed at the beginning of doctorate of physical therapy education and before the first significant clinical internship could be enhanced in a semester course in gross human anatomy using individual formative feedback. During the human anatomy course, 28 first‐year physical therapy students completed six biweekly, anonymous self‐ and peer assessment surveys that targeted ten professional behaviors important to physical therapists. All professional behaviors were assessed using a five‐point Likert scale. Feedback reports occurred at week eight (mid‐semester) and week 16 (end‐of‐semester) and comprised the direct intervention components of this study. At the midpoint of the semester, professional behavior scores and narrative comments from weeks two, four, and six were compiled and shared with each student by one of three faculty members in a feedback session. Students then submitted biweekly self‐and peer professional behavior assessments (weeks 10, 12, and 14) for the remainder of the human anatomy course. Differences between preintervention and postintervention scores for each of the ten professional behaviors were compared using the Wilcoxon signed‐ranks test. Upon receiving mid‐semester individual feedback, students demonstrated significant improvement in each of the ten professional behaviors. Results from this study indicated a gross anatomy laboratory dissection experience during the first academic semester provided an effective opportunity for teaching and assessing professional behaviors of doctoral students in physical therapy. Anat Sci Educ 6: 324–331. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.