Evaluating clinical competence of physical therapy students. Part 1: the development of an instrument

The study of clinical competence in physical therapy (PT) to date has focused primarily on a definition of the knowledge, skills, judgements, and attitudes that must be acquired by PT students for a satisfactory performance on entry into professional practice. Concomitant with this emphasis on defining clinical competence is the need for an accurate evaluation of the students' clinical competence during clinical practice. This study was designed to develop a tool for the evaluation of the clinical competence of PT students and to contribute to the definition of a construct of clinical competence. Three steps were involved in developing the evaluation tool. First, the clinical competencies required for PT practice were identified from a survey of the PT literature and professional documents. The identified clinical competencies were then validated through the analysis of a questionnaire completed by 121 physical therapists working in Edmonton, Alberta. The questionnaire results also provided a basis for determining the standards of performance by which to assess these competencies. Subsequently, an Evaluation of Clinical Competence (ECC) was designed as a behaviourally-anchored rating scale to determine, according to four standards of performance, whether a PT student could adequately perform the clinical competencies necessary to practise the profession.