Procedures and Guidelines

Tips for Clinical Instructors

Categories: faculty

(Summary of discussion from clinical education workshops)

Helpful strategies and approaches

  • Set clear expectations
  • Give daily feedback and/or regular feedback as appropriate – both positive and negative
  • Enthusiastic supervisor
  • See the situation as a two person partnership
  • Demonstrated respect for colleagues
  • An effective instructor has a ‘bond’ with patients
  • Diversity of activity
  • Its okay to make mistakes, students, we all, learn from mistakes
  • Keep a daily journal of student performance observations and this makes filling out the evaluation easier
  • Important to feel that instructor is open to receiving information and student feels free to talk
  • empowering students through building confidence

Not so helpful

  • Expecting an exact copy of yourself
  • When students are so fearful of doing something wrong
  • Too much reading and observing time and not enough active participation

Current Directions in Clinical Education and Education of Physical Therapists

  • more emphasis on critical thinking, problem-solving models, differential
  • diagnosis, professional attributes, self-reflection, self-directed learning, lifelong learning
  • more emphasis on assessment approach and analysis of information gathered and less emphasis on learning multiple discreet clinical treatment skills and practical skills labs, ie: not so ‘task oriented’ but instead ‘case-oriented’
  • research methodology, being a consumer of research, how to efficiently and routinely use research findings in daily caseload management
  • more emphasis on health systems, health care delivery models, interprofessional health care delivery models, population health, determinants of health, primary health and primary health care
  • performance evaluation is focused on global competencies for the profession, quality indicators and outcomes vs discreet clinical skills
  • variety of supervision models
  • preparing a clinical ‘diagnostician’/a ‘problem-solving’ professional
  • professional ethics, responsibility and accountability
  • clinical supervisors are ‘mentors’ who guide, support and challenge the maturation of clinical reasoning skills