Threshold concepts in prosthetics.
Sophie Hill
PMID 27888260WHAT IT FOUND
Students and lecturers described three central ideas in learning prosthetics: seeing gait as a prosthetist, using disciplinary language and talking with users, and moving from components to considering the whole person.
Key findings
01The analysis identified three possible threshold concepts in learning prosthetics: how we walk, learning to talk and considering the person.
02Lecturers said students could ask history questions but often lacked rapport and did not understand why the questions mattered.
03Students appeared to progress from a focus on prosthetic components to a focus on the person and a wider holistic view.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study looked only at prosthetics, not orthotics, so it may not apply to orthotic education. Data came from one academic year and students at different points in their degrees, so it cannot show how concepts develop over a whole programme. Only two universities took part, and University A had fewer student volunteers than University B, so the sample may not represent wider programmes. Fourth year students answered a questionnaire rather than taking part in an interview, so their responses may be less detailed. The article says it is outside the scope to test whether the concepts have a hierarchy or are irreversible. Not all participants from the larger study are represented in the extracts shown here.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the three concepts as tested teaching methods or as evidence that patient care improves. The study reports what students and lecturers said about learning prosthetics, and it did not examine orthotics.