Clinical Instructorsʼ Descriptions of Physical Therapist Student Professional Behaviors

Background and Purpose. Clinical instructors (CIs) have significant influence and responsibility guiding students toward professional competence through evaluation of clinical performance. CIs evaluate the professional behaviors of students in all three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. The purposes of this study were to identify the behaviors that CIs expect, to describe appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and to compare these behaviors to those cited in the literature. Subjects. Eleven physical therapists from a variety of clinical settings, with an average of 8.9 years of experience as CIs, were interviewed. Methods. Subjects agreed to a one-time, audiotaped, individual interview. A pre-interview form and a methodological journal maintained by the researcher were also used to gather data for this study. Open-ended interview questions were used to identify the expected appropriate and observed inappropriate professional behaviors of students. The interviews were then transcribed. Interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative methods for emergent themes and concepts. Results. Twenty-four students demonstrating inappropriate behaviors were discussed during the course of the CI interviews. CIs supervised a range of one to six students with inappropriate behavior. These behaviors were divided into four concepts: An Attitude, Lack of Interest, Poor Communication, and Being Unprofessional. Appropriate behaviors were divided into concepts: Accepts Responsibility for Learning, Communication Skills, Empathy, and Professionalism. Discussion and Conclusion. The appropriate behaviors identified by these clinical instructors are similar to what has been reported in the physical therapy literature, with the exception of the expectation for empathy. The concepts of and behaviors related to inappropriate behaviors have not been cited in the physical therapy literature. Descriptions of these inappropriate behaviors or “Generic Inabilities” may be useful to academic faculty, CIs, and students, when examining and evaluating behaviors of students during clinical education experiences.