Development and Testing of the Canadian Physiotherapy Assessment of Clinical Performance

Clinical education is a core component of the Canadian university physiotherapy (PT) entry-to-practice curricula. Assessment of students during clinical experiences is a critical element of the clinical education courses. A standardised tool to measure PT students' clinical performance in relation to the level of competence expected for an entry-level physiotherapist that is specific to the Canadian context does not exist. The main objective of this thesis was to develop and explore the psychometric properties of the Canadian Physiotherapy Assessment of Clinical Performance (ACP). The ACP is to be used by PT students and their clinical instructors to describe the PT students' clinical performance behaviours as observed in the clinical education setting relative to what might be expected of a physiotherapist in Canada. The first study of this thesis refined the items that would compose the new measure, identified the items that would have a comment box and also gained consensus on the rating scale anchors through Delphi methodology. The second and third studies provided evidence for the substantive nature (face and content validity) of the ACP. Interviews were conducted in the second study with stakeholders including clinical instructors, recent graduates and individuals with expertise in measurement and /or clinical education. The third study entailed broad consultation with physiotherapists who had clinical education experience via a national online survey. The fourth study piloted the ACP in 10 PT university education programs across Canada from March to December 2013. The analyses performed in this study provided evidence to support our scoring and generalization inferences and, in addition, also provided evidence for the structure and external relationships (construct validity) of the ACP. The ACP was also found to be a practical measure. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each role ranged from 0.94-0.99; scores at final internship points were higher than at midpoint; senior students performed better than junior students; students who performed well/poorly on the ACP also perform well/poorly on the current measure. The ACP can be used with confidence to assess the clinical performance behaviours of entry-level physiotherapy students in the clinical education setting.Ph.D.2017-06-16 00:00:0