Readiness for Clinical Practice Promoting Safe Student Performance in Physical Therapy Education.

Area of Science:

• Physical Therapy Education
• Clinical Education
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Physical therapy educators must ensure graduates provide safe, high-quality patient care.
• Assessing student safety performance during clinical education is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare midterm Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) safety scores of physical therapy students with and without prior on-campus safety concerns during clinical education experiences (CEEs).

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study analyzed 46 Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students, categorized into two groups: those with prior safety concerns who underwent remediation (n=17) and those without (n=29).
• Student self-assessment (SSA) and clinical instructor (CI) midterm CPI safety scores were examined across three CEEs (Practicum 2, 3, and 4).

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in SSA or CI midterm CPI safety scores between the two safety groups across all practicum experiences (p>0.05).
• Students with prior safety concerns demonstrated significantly higher Practicum 2 SSA midterm CPI safety scores in outpatient settings compared to inpatient settings (p=0.015).

Conclusions:

• Early identification and remediation of safety concerns on campus correlate with successful safety performance in clinical education.
• This suggests that targeted interventions can effectively prepare students for safe practice during CEEs.