SurveyClinical Education: Perceived abilities/qualities of clinical educators and team supervision of students
Introduction
The growth in the number of therapists which was announced in the National Health Service Plan (DoH, 2000) is being addressed within the physiotherapy profession as a number of higher education institutions have increased their intake of undergraduate students. However, in 2001, the director of education at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy stated that the demand for clinical placements for the increased number of students is an additional burden on a system which is already finding it difficult to accommodate existing student numbers (CSP, 2001). At the same time, the profession is exper-iencing difficulties with recruitment and retention (Carrington and Moran, 2001).
As a way of accommodating more students, individual clinical educators are being asked to increase the number of students they supervise at any one time. This is often perceived by clinical educators as detrimental despite research evidence to the contrary (Ladyshewsky, 1993, 1995; DuPont et al, 1997; Baldry Currens and Bithell, 2000), and the pool of clinical educators may feel exploited by a demand to increase their workload. Further problems may arise if the profession is unable to retain existing clinical educators within the workforce.
Without a change in patterns of student clinical supervision, there are likely to be major problems in accommodating increased numbers of undergraduate students. A possible solution could be to increase the number of clinical educators, or change the model of facilitation of learning, or do both.
The Core Standards of Physiotherapy Practice (CSP, 2000a, page 13) states: ‘There should be a systematic, proactive and responsive approach to the provision of clinical education’. However there does not appear to be any consistency among healthcare providers in their systems for providing suitable clinical placements, and the provision can vary even within individual departments. Moreover although the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy cites in its Validation Guidelines that ‘Clinical education is part of the responsibility and role of all clinical practitioners’ (CSP, 2000b), there does not appear to be a systematic process in place which either encourages or leads a clinician to take on the role of educator.
Providing the theoretical element of a degree programme in physiotherapy requires only a comparatively small number of academic staff within a higher education institution. The clinical education element however requires large numbers of clinical educators so that students can gain experience in a range of clinical settings. In addressing this the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy says: ‘Anywhere a physiotherapist works is potentially suitable for a clinical education placement as a means of gaining a broad range of skills’ (CSP Validation Guidelines, 2000b). Higher education institutions should therefore have opportunities to place students within a wide variety of settings, which would increase the availability of place-ments and hopefully increase the number of clinical educators.
In 1995, Maxwell found that clinical educators considered that staff shortages, funding and service pressures were contributory factors in the shortage of clinical placements – views which are still expressed when requests are made for extra placements. Within the West Midlands, the number of commissioned physiotherapy student placements rose from 186 in 2000 to 286 in 2002, and despite the two directives from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy cited above, there are still many problems to overcome in acquiring enough place-ments and educators.
In order to address some of these problems, an investigation of current clinical education provision for phy-siotherapy students at Birmingham University was carried out in order to identify:
- ▪
Why clinicians choose to become educators.
- ▪
The grade of clinical educators and where they work.
- ▪
The abilities and qualities that clinical educators perceive that they bring to clinical education. This may identify aspects within the role that could also be offered or shared by others, and hence help to increase the size of the pool of educators.
This paper presents and discusses the results from this study and suggests strategies that might increase the number of clinical educators, taking into con-sideration personal and professional development and changing models of supervision.
Section snippets
Methodology – Sample/procedure
The study is part of an on-going process, which investigates different aspects of clinical supervision by adopting an explanation-building procedure (Yin, 1994; Robson, 1995). Information for this part of the larger investigation used two postal questionnaires. Each quest-ionnaire when mailed was accompanied by a covering letter assuring respondents' anonymity, and a request that respond-ents should avoid consultation with others before completing the questionnaire in order to avoid possible
Questionnaire 1
Sixty-seven questionnaires were returned, which was a 64% response rate. Their grade, number of years since qualification and the reason chosen for becoming a clinical educator are displayed in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4. Table 2 shows that 92% of clinical educators were working at senior I grade and above, and within the region most clinical educators are working at senior I level)
Respondents identified a number of abilities and qualities that they thought important in being a good clinical
Discussion
Within the area surveyed, clinical supervision is largely being undertaken by clinicians working at senior I level and above (table 2) who have been qualified for an average of 12.5 years (table 3). At this stage it can be assumed that these clinicians will be accountable not only for managing their personal caseload and professional development but also for facilitation of the development of staff of lower grades and for managerial duties in a broader context. By including the role of clinical
Conclusions
The issues raised within this discussion are speculative, but are compatible with the study aims. The findings show that clinical supervision need not be seen as a role to be undertaken only by more experienced physiotherapists in terms of grade or years qualified. The views of clinicians within a specified geographical area have shown a belief that all grades have an insight into the many aspects of clinical education.
It does not conclusively suggest that a team approach to clinical
Endnote
Since completion of this part of the study ‘team supervision’ has been adopted within some clinical areas where students from the University of Birmingham are supervised. Work is currently in progress to evaluate the model.
References (26)
- et al.
‘Clinical education: Listening to different perspectives’
Physiotherapy
(2000) ‘Perceptions of the ideal clinical educator in physiotherapy education’
Physiotherapy
(1995)‘Problems associated with the clinical education of physiotherapy students: A Delphi survey’
Physiotherapy
(1995)‘Developing clinical competence: A mastery pathway’
Australian Journal of Physiotherapy
(1996)‘Professional development. 1: Professional socialisation and professionalisation’
Physiotherapy
(1999)- Bennett R (2001) ‘Advantages for clinical educators and students when adopting the 2:1 model of clinical supervision’,...
‘Situated learning: A workplace experience’
Australian Journal of Adult and Community Education
(1994)- et al.
‘Adventures in two-to-one supervision: Two students can be better than one’
Supervision
(1994) - et al.
‘Recruit, retain, return’, Managers News, August
(2001) Core Standards of Physiotherapy Practice
(2000)
‘Meeting the clinical education challenge’
Physiotherapy Frontline
‘Enhancing your CPD: The contribution of clinical education’, Information Paper CPD 34 & CE 3
Cited by (26)
An analysis of the role performance and characteristics of an ideal clinical tutor: Perspectives from undergraduate diagnostic radiography students in KwaZulu-Natal
2023, RadiographyCitation Excerpt :It is evident from the students that some clinical tutors have attitudes of friendliness and are approachable, while others appear arrogant. This finding was similar to a study conducted by Ingrassia26 in Australia on Nursing students and Bennet27 in Birmingham on Physiotherapy students. The findings also reveal that students across the world who are pursuing their studies in allied Health Sciences share the same perspectives on the characteristics of a good clinical tutor.
Profile of an Allied Health Clinical Supervision Workforce: Results From a Nationally Representative Australian Practice-Based Research Network
2020, Health Professions EducationCitation Excerpt :Moreover, clinical supervisors need to ensure that they cultivate their students’ capacity to remain adaptive and resourceful throughout their practice life.4 Primary motivations to join the clinical supervision workforce include commitment to support the profession, improvement in one's own clinical skill and knowledge, increase work satisfaction, and enjoyment of educating learners.3,5–9 However, shortages of clinical supervisors are predicted in the near future for several health professions, including nursing, midwifery and allied health.10,11
Characteristics of an ideal practice educator: Perspectives from undergraduate students in diagnostic radiography, nuclear medicine, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and radiation therapy
2016, RadiographyCitation Excerpt :These work based experiences integrate academic study with competency development, and can be defined as the process of assisting students in the acquisition of skills, knowledge and attitudes required to fulfil the minimum standards set by universities, licensing boards and professional accreditation bodies.3,4 Many terms are used to describe this, in particular ‘clinical placement’ in diagnostic radiography and nutrition and dietetics, ‘clinical education’ in physiotherapy and ‘practice education’ in occupational therapy.5–14 In this study the term 'practice education' has been used.
Characteristics of an ideal practice educator: Perspectives from practice educators in diagnostic radiography, nuclear medicine, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy and physiotherapy and radiation therapy
2016, RadiographyCitation Excerpt :A review of literature revealed that the most frequently recurring practice educator characteristics were included in a survey developed by Buchel and Edwards (2005).16 The survey was modified to include one additional characteristic (‘awareness of student's learning needs’) due to prevalence in the literature.4,8,10,15,18–21 Further amendments included a five point Likert scale to rate characteristics instead of numerical ranking and two additional open response questions to generate qualitative data on most and least preferred characteristics.
Mapping placement educators' conceptions of teaching
2007, Physiotherapy
This study was funded in part by grants from the South African Society of Physiotherapy and the University of Durban-Westville.
- 1
Rosalie Bennett MSc MCSP PGCHE is a lecturer/clinical co-ordinator in the School of Health Sciences/Physiotherapy at the University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT.