Exploring the experiences and implementing strategies for physiotherapy students who perceive they have been bullied or harassed on clinical placements: participatory action research

Abstract

Objectives: To explore and empower physiotherapy students who reported being bullied or harassed on clinical placements by co-developing, implementing and evaluating strategies that could be adopted by the university.Design: A participatory action research design was employed.Participants: Two focus groups were carried out involving 5 final year physiotherapy students. In the first focus group negative experiences were discussed and coping strategies suggested for their penultimate placement. A second focus group was held following the students' final placement when these strategies were evaluated and further ones proposed. Analysis:A thematic analysis of the data was carried out.Results: Four themes and sub-themes emerged from the analysis. The four themes were, negative experiences on placement, coping strategies, the role of the visiting tutor and the assessment. The students' highlighted various degrees of threat to their efficacy and in most cases could draw upon a suggested 'tool box' of coping strategies. They all agreed that serious cases of harassment require wider support from the University senior management team which should be clearly documented. The role of the visiting tutor was deemed to be critical in these situations and recommendations were made regarding this role and the assessment of placements. Conclusion:Students understand that they are going to be assessed before achieving their professional qualification and in essence they will always find themselves in a

It’s ‘probably the teacher!’ A strategic framework for clinical staff engagement in clinical student bullying intervention

“…In summary, a more useful approach to ameliorating student bullying engages staff by:incorporating an understanding of potential workplace bullying catalysts, such as burnout [20] and personal values [3] which, when ignored, can perpetuate bullying [21–23];considering staffs’ unique work context [24–27] and addressing their adult learning needs [15, 28, 29] rather than ‘lecturing’ them [29];operating over and above policy/reporting about bullying behaviour which are necessary, but not sufficient processes for ensuring behaviour change [3, 30–34];including all staff, without targeting specific groups [15, 16];focusing on cultivating skills (e.g. clinical teaching) rather than seeking to punitively eliminate negative behaviour [1, 35–38];being administered by a skilful interventionist, understood as credible and engaging, without taking a top-down approach [1, 15]. …”

“…focusing on cultivating skills (e.g. clinical teaching) rather than seeking to punitively eliminate negative behaviour [1, 35–38];…”

Physiotherapy Student's Perceptions of the Ideal Clinical Educator

“…Some positive experiences have been associated with compatible personality traits, similar personal epistemologies (their beliefs about knowledge and source of knowledge) and a mutual reverence of both the educator and student roles (Delany and Bragge, 2009). Notwithstanding a large proportion of student satisfaction studies indicate that clinical education and supervision interactions are comparatively positive (Ramakrishnan and Bairapareddy, 2020), evidence exploring bullying within physiotherapy placements continue to gather impetus (Graj et al, 2019, Thomson et al, 2017. Common negative placement experiences identified by physiotherapy students were an aggressive teaching style, inconsistencies in attitude, unapproachable and assigning unrealistic extracurricular tasks causing burn out (Meyer et al, 2017).…”

Exploring the Role of Mindfulness as a Potential Self-Management Strategy for Physiotherapy Students when on Clinical Placement

“…The majority of students and clinical educators view placement experiences as enjoyable (Thomson et al 2017) and in a very positive light (Hall, McFarlane, and Mulholland 2012). However, a 'theory-practice' gap is acknowledged and, rather than a seamless transition, it can be challenging 'translating' academic knowledge into real-life situations (Newton et al 2009).…”

“…However, a 'theory-practice' gap is acknowledged and, rather than a seamless transition, it can be challenging 'translating' academic knowledge into real-life situations (Newton et al 2009). Unlike the structured and monitored framework of university (Whiteside, Stubbs, and Soundy 2014), students encounter both formal and informal learning opportunities (Brown et al 2011) and have the challenge of adapting to new and unpredictable situations (Thomson et al 2017). In a study by Thomson et al (2014) exploring how prepared physiotherapy students felt before their first clinical placement, 48% perceived that the training they received for communicating with families and carers was inadequate, and 24% felt a lack of interaction with patients and service users before their clinical placement and concluded that this was a limitation.…”