Covert bias in evaluation of physical therapist students' clinical performance

Physical therapist education programs rely on physical therapy practitioners to evaluate the performance of students during clinical affiliations. The purpose of this study was to determine whether covert bias exists in the evaluative judgments of physical therapy practitioners.

A convenience sample of 83 physical therapists attending the fall conference of the Florida Physical Therapy Association was selected. The subjects, 31 men and 52 women (73 white, 3 black, and 7 Hispanic), had a mean age of 41.5 years (SD = 8.2, range = 26-73).

Four female physical therapist students (1 white, 1 Hispanic, 1 Asian, and 1 black) were videotaped reciting identical scripts about a patient's status. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of four groups and read a case study about the patient, viewed one videotape, and rated the student's presentation on a form developed by the researchers.

The white, Hispanic, and Asian students received higher ratings than the black student on two factors: clarity of presentation and overall rating. The white and Hispanic students received a higher rating than the black student on maintaining interest. The white and the Asian students received a higher rating than the black student on communication of appropriate information. The white student received a higher rating than the black student on organization of information.

The black student consistently received low ratings, indicating that racial or ethnic bias may influence the opinions of physical therapy practitioners. These results justify further exploration of the effect of race and ethnicity on student evaluation in the clinic.