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Community health workers (CHWs) have been effectively utilised in resource‐limited settings to combat a growing demand for health access that cannot be met by the current workforce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a CHW training programme in Malawi that integrated technology into rehabilitation care delivery. This was a retrospective cross‐sectional study of a training programme conducted in December 2018. The participants were a convenience sample of all active home‐based palliative care CHWs at St. Gabriel's Hospital (n = 60). The data collected included the following: a written pre‐ and post‐knowledge test, skills competency checklist and a post‐training programme survey. Descriptive frequencies described skill competency and quantitative responses from the post‐training programme survey. Paired t test (α = 0.05) analysis determined the significance of knowledge acquisition. Themes in the narrative responses in the post‐training survey were identified. Both training programme groups showed significantly greater knowledge on the post‐test (M = 9.50, SD = 0.861; M = 9.43, SD = 0.971) compared to the pre‐test (M = 7.97, SD = 1.351; M = 7.90, SD = 1.900); t(29) = 6.565, p < .001; t(29) = 4.104, p < .001 for Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. All participants demonstrated skill competency in 100% of the skills. All participants responded that the training programme helped them review skills and understand how to use technology ‘A lot’ on a Likert scale (no, a little, some, a lot). Facilitators of their work included training programmes, phones, communication with the hospital and collaboration amongst CHWs. Barriers included transportation needs, lack of patient care supplies and lack of caregiver compliance. Overall, utilisation of their knowledge and skills from the training programmes helped their patients make improvements in mobility and function that are meaningful to their quality of life in the village. This study highlights the importance of assessing programmes in low‐resource settings with a focus on feasibility and developing local capacity.

Objective Academic physical therapy has no universal metrics by which educational programs can measure outcomes, limiting their ability to benchmark to their own historical performance, to peer institutions, or to other healthcare professions. The PT-GQ survey, adapted from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Graduation Questionnaire, addresses this gap by offering both inter-professional insight and fine-scale assessment of physical therapist education. This study reports the first wave of findings from an ongoing multi-site trial of the PT-GQ among diverse academic physical therapy programs, including: 1) benchmarks for academic physical therapy, and 2) a comparison of the physical therapist student experience to medical education benchmarks. Methods Thirty-four doctor of physical therapy (DPT) programs (13.2% nationwide sample) administered the online survey to DPT graduates during the 2019–2020 academic year. PT-GQ and AAMC data were contrasted via Welch’s unequal-variance t-test and Hedges’ g (effect size). Results A total of 1025 respondents participated in the study (response rate: 63.9%). Average survey duration was 31.8 minutes. Overall educational satisfaction was comparable to medicine, and respondents identified areas of curricular strength (eg, anatomy) and weakness (eg, pharmacology). DPT respondents provided higher ratings of faculty professionalism than medicine, lower rates of student mistreatment, and a lesser impact of within-program diversity upon their training. One-third of respondents were less than “Satisfied” with student mental health services. DPT respondents reported significantly higher Exhaustion but lower Disengagement than medical students, along with lower Tolerance for Ambiguity. Of DPT respondents who reported educational debt, one-third reported debt exceeding $150,000, the threshold above which the DPT degree loses economic power. Conclusions These academic benchmarks, using the PT-GQ, provided insight into physical therapist education and identified differences between physical therapist and medical student perceptions. Impact This ongoing trial will establish a comprehensive set of benchmarks to better understand academic physical therapy outcomes.