The development of items for a physiotherapy clinical programme evaluation tool.
Vaneshveri Naidoo, Aimee V Stewart, Morake E Douglas Maleka
PMID 38059057WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians and academics identified 131 specific items needed to evaluate physiotherapy education, ranging from institutional policies to student-supervisor relationships.
These items form a draft framework for assessing clinical training quality, though the tool itself is not yet tested.
Key findings
01Focus group discussions with physiotherapy educators and clinicians identified three main themes for evaluation: governance, academic structure, and clinical experience.
02A preliminary evaluation tool was generated containing 131 questions divided into governance (17), academic structure (55), and operational structure (59).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The themes and items are specific to the South African context and may not apply universally. The tool is preliminary; these 131 items have not yet been tested for reliability or validity in a real-world setting. The study relied on self-reported experiences from educators and clinicians, not on observed student performance or patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial or personal conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the 131-item list as a validated assessment tool. These items represent educator opinions on what should be measured, not a tested instrument that reliably measures quality.