basketball was important to the patient. With this information, the learner was able to link all of the interventions to returning to basketball, which allowed the patient to fully engage in the session. The learner explained that while playing a sport Instruction/teaching The primary role of the educator or mentor is to facilitate the learning process of the student or peer. This occurs through engaging the student in the learning process as an adult learner, creating appropriate learning experiences to meet the learner’s needs, promoting student self-assessment and reflection, facilitating student clinical decision making, and continually seeking activities to improve teaching abilities (Mostrom, 2013). Promoting accountability for learning by asking the learner to review articles, searching the evidence for particular clinical practice guidelines, and discussing these results with the learner are all methods of facilitating adult learning. If the learner is having difficulty understanding how to advance a patient’s therapeutic exercise program appropriately, the educator may give the learner three exercise options to choose from and ask the learner to justify why he or she thinks one exercise Evaluation of student performance Assessment of learner performance is an ongoing process. The purpose of this activity is to measure progress toward goals, evaluate competence in knowledge, skills, and abilities, and in the health professions, protect the public. The educator should incorporate multiple sources of evaluation to make decisions about a learner’s readiness to practice. Whether the educator uses a tool such as the Clinical Practice Instrument (CPI) for students on a clinical education experience or mentorship to a licensed therapist, the measurement tool should assess Learner diagnosis Just as a physician determines a medical diagnosis during a patient interaction and a physical therapist determines a movement system or physical therapy diagnosis, the clinical educator develops a learner diagnosis for the student/learner (Mostrom, 2013; Paschal, 2013). Essentially, the educator identifies where the learner needs to improve. For example, psychomotor skills could be a learner diagnosis for a student/ learner that needs to work on patient handling skills. Another learner diagnosis could be clinical reasoning skills for a learner who has difficulty determining the most important contributing factors to the patient’s health condition. This information helps the educator plan appropriate learning opportunities and helps the learner identify areas of improvement to focus on.
was not important to her, she was able to see that this was important to the patient and used it to build rapport and patient engagement.
would be better than another. This allows the educator to see the learner’s thought process and can help to improve clinical reasoning. This is just one example of a learning experience the educator may deem appropriate to facilitate learning. Additionally, the educator may modify his or her teaching style to better match the learner’s preferred style (Recker-Hughes et al., 2014). If the learner is more introverted and prefers to write out his or her thoughts versus verbalizing them, the educator may ask the learner to briefly write out the plan of care for the patient’s visit prior to seeing the patient. After seeing the patient, the educator may ask the learner to reflect upon the visit by answering questions like, “What was the most successful part of the patient encounter and why do you believe it was successful?” communication, professionalism, patient management skills, and clinical reasoning. Evaluation should occur throughout the entire experience in the clinical setting, not just at one or two isolated points in time. The educator’s feedback to the learner should include areas of strength and areas to improve upon as a component of clinical teaching (Recker-Hughes et al., 2014). In addition to the evaluation by the educator, the test used to assess learner performance should also provide an opportunity for the learner to self-evaluate (Paschal, 2013). For a learner who needs to improve psychomotor skills, the clinical educator or mentor may demonstrate an appropriate transfer technique with a patient who has had a stroke, then have the learner demonstrate performing this transfer on the clinical educator while providing the learner with feedback, and then collaboratively perform a transfer with the learner on a patient with a stroke. In this case illustration, the educator identified the educational diagnosis of psychomotor skills, role modeled the technique of performing this transfer in a safe environment, had the learner demonstrate this technique on the educator, and then to build the learner’s confidence, had the learner perform this technique with the clinical educator or mentor to solidify the technique and answer any questions and provide feedback.
CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE CLINICAL INSTRUCTORS
Earlier in the course, skills of effective clinical instructors and mentors were described. Here, we discuss characteristics of effective clinical instructors. While skills and characteristics may seem identical, a characteristic is an inherent quality while a skill Interpersonal skills and communication Effective clinical instructors demonstrate the following characteristics related to interpersonal skills and communication: 1) an internal drive and motivation to teach, 2) a positive attitude when teaching, 3) a positive learning environment, 4) effective communication with others, and 5) reflection in, on, and for practice in the clinical setting. Specific indicators of a motivation to teach include a passion for teaching, taking time to talk to learners about any issues or Professionalism Demonstrating clinical competence, modeling APTA core values, and incorporating collaborative care are all indicators of professionalism as seen in Table 2. These components are best role-modeled in the clinical setting as they are difficult to teach from a textbook in the didactic curriculum. Students and other learners can easily identify when
is a demonstrated ability to do something well. The following characteristics are considered essential in effective clinical instructors (Recker-Hughes et al., 2014).
concerns, and an interest in the student learning that is occurring or how to improve this learning (Recker-Hughes et al., 2014). A clinical instructor creates a positive learning environment by encouraging the learner to share knowledge in a safe environment without judgment and demonstrates an openness to student ideas. An effective clinical instructor reflects upon, modifies his or her teaching strategies, and seeks feedback from the student on the experience and interactions (Recker-Hughes et al., 2014). a clinical instructor demonstrates competence in patient care and APTA core values such as compassion when, for example, the instructor advocates to the insurance payer for more physical therapy visits based upon the evidence, patient progress, and functional improvements.
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Book Code: PTCA2622B
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