Standards for Clinical Education: A Qualitative Study

Background and Purpose. Partnerships need to exist between the clinical and academic communities in order to maintain the quality of clinical education. This qualitative study reports the outcomes of discussions between academic and clinical faculty concerning standards for clinical education. Subjects. Participants were 43 clinical and academic physical therapist (PT) educators, new graduates, and students. Methods. An overall concept of phenomenology was used in this qualitative study. We conducted interviews using a focus-group methodology. Participants were asked: (1) If we were to build clinical education from scratch with considerations given to Vision 2020, what would or should clinical education look like? (2) Looking at the state of clinical education as it exists today, what are the components that could or should be standardized? (3) What should not be standardized? We then determined common themes among the interviews. Results. Analysis identified 5 major themes related to standards for clinical education: (1) format and length of clinical experiences (CEs), (2) breadth of CEs, (3) expected outcomes and assessment of students' clinical performance, (4) standards for clinical instructors (CIs), and (5) standards for clinical education facilities. Discussion and Conclusions. Academic and clinical faculty did not agree on the need to standardize length, breadth, and credentials for CIs. Participants expressed interest in using clinical competencies as an outcome assessment for clinical education and described some qualities that clinical education facilities should possess.