Texas Consortium for Physical Therapy Clinical Education. A model for Interinstitutional Consortium arrangements

This article describes the Texas Consortium for Physical Therapy Clinical Education, which exemplifies one type of collaborative arrangement among universities. Coordination of physical therapy clinical education among five Texas universities is the major function of the Texas Consortium. Although originally developed from a federally funded project (1977-1980), it currently functions with sole financial support from the participating universities. The collaborative efforts of the Texas Consortium have resulted in 1) developing and implementing a common evaluation tool for students' clinical performance; 2) coordinating development of new clinical education centers, development of clinical instructors, and visits to students at clinical education centers; and 3) developing and using a shared computer program for data on clinical education centers. The successful functioning of the Texas Consortium with a resultant decrease in duplication of time, effort, and costs of clinical education demonstrates that this type of arrangement is feasible and beneficial.