Developing consensus on competency-based educational standards in orthopaedic manual physical therapy fellowship...

Updated training paradigms within post-graduate orthopaedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) are critical to align training with current evidence-based practice. Competency-based education (CBE) has become prevalent in post-graduate training given its emphasis on competency rather than knowledge. This study, in conjunction with congruent studies, aimed to develop consensus on competencies and graduation milestones critical for OMPT fellowship education. The current study focused on the clinical reasoning domain.

A modified 3-round Delphi was performed. Round I consisted of a panel of experts asynchronously developing competencies and graduation milestones related to clinical reasoning in OMPT. Round II and Round III invited International Federation of Manual and Musculoskeletal Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) members across 30 member organizations to vote on the competencies and milestones. Each round was completed over 6 weeks. Consensus was determined a priori to be reached at 80% agreement, and composite scores were developed to represent the strength of agreement.

Six experts including two OMPT fellowship directors/coordinators developed eight competencies and 33 graduation milestones related to OMPT clinical reasoning. One-hundred ninety-nine IFOMPT members across 15 countries participated in ranking the proposed competencies in Round II and III. The majority of respondents were from the United States (69%). All eight competencies and 33 milestones met consensus for inclusion. Strong support was demonstrated for advanced patient assessment, continuous reflection on learning, and evidence-informed evaluation while prognosis and outcome prediction had weaker support.

Results support expectation for OMPT fellows to provide high level clinical reasoning, ability to communicate this reasoning with patients and other healthcare providers, ability to self-reflect on the clinical reasoning process, and commitment to growth and lifelong learning. OMPT fellowship education should consider transition to competency-based models of training and assessment to promote consistent competence in graduates across all domains of advanced practice.