Basics of Clinical Education

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Introduction

Clinical education is one of the most valuable opportunities for student learning in a programme. Experiential learning provides an opportunity for students to practise knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the workplace where they are ultimately expected to perform.[2]

Clinical education is also valuable for programmatic improvement. Student performance in the clinical setting provides useful feedback to the programme regarding student preparation to serve individuals in the community.

Definitions

Clinical Education

According to the American Physical Therapy Association, clinical education is "a formal supervised experiential learning, focused on development and application of patient/client-centered skills and professional behaviors. It is designed so that students gain substantial, relevant clinical experience and skills, engage in contemporary practice, and demonstrate competence before beginning entry level practice."[1]

Clinical Educator

The clinical instructors can also be called a clinical mentor, educator, or preceptor or clinical faculty. [3]

The rehabilitation professional responsible for the therapy student and for directly instructing, guiding, supervising, and formally assessing the student during the clinical education experience.

Clinical education faculty

The individuals engaged in providing the clinical education components of the curriculum.[1]

General Guidelines for Clinical Education Programme

• One of the most essential features of a successful clinical education programme is the quality of the clinical instructors or clinical faculty. [3]
• Clinical instructors must have a professional license in the relevant profession.[4]

"The clinical education director/coordinator and clinical education site instructors involved in the physical therapist professional entry level education programme should be licensed/registered physical therapists if such a process exists in the country/state or if no licensure/registration exists, then clinical faculty must be a member of the professional organisation."--WCPT (2011)

• Some programmes require at least one year of clinical experience before clinical mentorship occurs. Creating a requirement to participate in a clinical mentorship training programme improves the quality of clinical education programmes. Programmes have been developed to improve mentorship, and these have resulted in improvements in student experiences.[5]

Characteristics of Successful Clinical Instructors

The clinical instructor's supervisory style has been identified as an important element to evaluate.[6]

Characteristics of successful clinical instructors and environments have been described by Recker-Hughes et al. in 2014.[3] The authors describe successful characteristics of instructors to include mentors who have (1) strong interpersonal and communication skills, (2) professional behaviours, (3) instructional and teaching skills, and (4) evaluation and performance skills.[3] Notably, these characteristics are largely similar to characteristics of successful academic instructors.

1. Interpersonal and communication skills that promote student learning include demonstrating a

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