The relationship between physical therapy clinical educator's motivation and negative factors.
Yuichi Yoshida, Osamu Yoshimura, Masazumi Kusumoto and 2 others
PMID 32753787WHAT IT FOUND
Unmotivated clinical educators were far less likely to believe student guidance helps their own growth or to want training in teaching methods.
They also relied less on workshop learning and requested fewer student details in advance. These attitudes cluster together but do not prove causation.
Key findings
01Unmotivated educators were significantly less likely to agree that guiding students is necessary for their own professional growth (p<0.001).
02Unmotivated educators were significantly less likely to want to learn about instructional methods (p<0.001).
03Unmotivated educators were significantly less likely to draw on instructional methods learned in training workshops (p=0.02).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study design is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that changing these negative factors will improve motivation; it only shows they occur together. The question about whether student guidance aids professional growth was not standardized and lacks objective measurement. The sample was limited to physical therapists in Japan, so results may not apply to other countries or professions. The very high odds ratios for two questions suggest a large gap between groups but may also indicate instability in the estimates due to small numbers in some response categories.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The research was part of a larger survey titled 'A questionnaire survey on the difficulties faced by supervisors during clinical training: an objective analysis using text mining'.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that fixing these specific attitudes will automatically make a clinical educator more motivated. The study is a snapshot of associations, not a test of an intervention, so the direction of cause and effect is unknown.