Juggling roles and generating solutions; practice-based educators' perceptions of performance-based assessment of...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Clinical Assessment
• Physiotherapy Practice

Background:

• Physiotherapy performance-based assessment (PBA) lacks robust evidence compared to medicine and nursing.
• Stakeholder perspectives on physiotherapy assessment processes are under-researched.
• Understanding clinician viewpoints is crucial for improving physiotherapy student assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the perceptions of physiotherapy clinicians involved in student workplace assessment.
• To identify factors influencing the effectiveness of performance-based assessment in physiotherapy education.
• To inform the development of improved physiotherapy assessment strategies.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative descriptive study utilizing focus group interviews.
• Inductive thematic analysis of qualitative data.
• Participants included 46 clinical educators and practice tutors from three Irish universities.

Main Results:

• Theme 1: Tensions in the clinical learning environment, highlighting role conflicts for clinical educators balancing patient care and student supervision.
• Theme 2: An optimal performance-based assessment process, emphasizing maintaining current elements and increasing dedicated educational roles.
• Clinicians perceived dedicated educational roles as enhancing assessment standardization and rigor.

Conclusions:

• Clinicians face a complex environment in supervising and assessing physiotherapy students.
• Dedicated educational roles are perceived to offer a more standardized and rigorous approach to performance-based assessment.
• Stakeholder insights are vital for developing physiotherapy assessment processes that address facilitators and challenges for clinical educators.