Physiotherapy clinical educators’ perceptions and experiences of clinical prediction rules

Abstract

Students are unlikely to be learning about CPRs on clinical placement, as few clinical educators use them. Clinical educators will require training in CPRs and assistance in teaching them if students are to better learn about implementing CPRs in physiotherapy clinical practice.

Physiotherapy students’ perceptions and experiences of clinical prediction rules

“…The most common reasons for this were students not knowing enough about CPRs or not using them often enough (81%) and a perceived lack of use or knowledge about CPRs by clinical educators (80%). This is consistent with a recent survey of physiotherapy clinical educators [10], which found that a large proportion of educators knew little about CPRs and so were unlikely to be teaching them to students on clinical placement.…”

“…Those students who had used them reported that they were learning little about CPRs from their clinical educators. The 27% of student users who reported they were 'sometimes' or 'always' learning about CPRs whilst on clinical placement (Figure 1) represent less than 6% of total respondents, and so most students are unlikely to be taught CPRs in the clinical setting, supporting the findings of our survey of physiotherapy clinical educators [10]. Arguably if students have such a poor understanding of CPRs or are using them inappropriately, it highlights the need for better education regarding EBP (including CPRs) in the classroom and in the clinic.…”

“…CPRs do this by combining relevant clinical variables to give a numeric probability of a condition or an outcome [8,9]. Although there are many CPRs that can be applied in physiotherapy clinical practice, preliminary evidence is emerging that CPRs are underutilised by physiotherapists, who are either unaware of them [10] or reluctant to use them [5,11].…”

“…Of the five universities involved in this study, one does not formally teach anything about CPRs in its curriculum, while the other four introduce only a few basic concepts with specific examples of CPRs. A study by our research team found that most physiotherapy clinical educators in Australia were not teaching CPRs [10], so a comprehensive evaluation of physiotherapy students across Australia would be valuable in order to ascertain how much they know about CPRs. It may be beneficial to teach students a general understanding of CPRs as an aid to learning clinical reasoning, and exposing students to the application of CPRs in the clinic is consistent with an evidence-based approach to physiotherapy learning and practice.…”

“…It may be beneficial to teach students a general understanding of CPRs as an aid to learning clinical reasoning, and exposing students to the application of CPRs in the clinic is consistent with an evidence-based approach to physiotherapy learning and practice. Furthermore, if students can be better educated about CPR usage it may help alleviate the fears of some clinical educators that CPRs promote a recipe-based approach to clinical practice [10].…”