Elizabeth Mostrom

National Study of Excellence and Innovation in Physical Therapist Education: Part 2—A Call to Reform

This perspective shares recommendations that draw from (1) the National Study of Excellence and Innovation in Physical Therapist Education research findings and a conceptual model of excellence in physical therapist education, (2) the Carnegie Foundations Preparation for the Professions Program (PPP), and (3) research in the learning sciences. The 30 recommendations are linked to the dimensions described in the conceptual model for excellence in physical therapist education: Culture of Excellence, Praxis of Learning, and Organizational Structures and Resources. This perspective proposes a transformative call for reform framed across 3 core categories: (1) creating a culture of excellence, leadership, and partnership, (2) advancing the learning sciences and understanding and enacting the social contract, and (3) implementing organizational imperatives. Similar to the Carnegie studies, this perspective identifies action items (9) that should be initiated immediately in a strategic and systematic way by the major organizational stakeholders in physical therapist education. These recommendations and action items provide a transformative agenda for physical therapist education, and thus the profession, in meeting the changing needs of society through higher levels of excellence.

Building Portfolios: A Means for Developing Habits of Reflective Practice in Physical Therapy Education

&NA; The purpose of this article is to consider the use of portfolios as one method to foster reflective practice in teaching and learning. The authors contend that building a portfolio is a learning experience in and of itself as well as a product for use informative and/or summative assessment of student learning, teacher and practitioner development, and program performance. In a review of the use of portfolios by learners, teachers, and programs, they describe how the purpose and goals of a portfolio serve to guide its design, enactment, and outcome analysis. By engaging in a mentored, collaborative, and reflective process of portfolio development, students, practitioners, and teachers are able to make better sense of what they are doing and plan for continuous improvement stimulated by critical self‐assessment of what they have done. The process of building portfolios supports the development of reflective practitioners who continuously assess their own performance and plan for ongoing learning and development.

Teaching and Learning about Patient Education in Physical Therapy Professional Preparation: Academic and Clinical Considerations

ABSTRACT: The role of the physical therapist as patient educator is central to everyday practice as a clinician. Thus, an important question for physical therapy educators is how to best teach and help students learn about patient education in physical therapy professional education, This article draws on personal reflection and practical experience as well as current theory and research to consider how physical therapy educators can facilitate the development of competent patient educators. Lessons that can be learned about patient education bv students in academic and clinical environments are described and explored. Me highlight educational strategies and experiences, emphasizing sellreflection, in both of these settings that can make unique and enduring contributions to student learning about the multifaceted and complex process of patient education. INTRODUCTION As this special issue and a plethora of literature attests, the role of the physical therapist as a patient educator is central to everyday practice as a clinician.1-11 Some investigators and the master therapists they studied have gone so far as to characterize therapy as an educative endeavor, with clinical encounters consisting largely of reciprocal teaching and learning between therapist and client.12-17 The effectiveness of therapy can most certainly hinge on the therapists ability to establish therapeutic relationships with clients and the therapists skill as a teacher. Furthermore, in todays health care environment, in which the frequency of patient encounters in therapy has been diminishing, the need for clinicians to be competent patient educators is even more essential. The importance of becoming a skilled patient educator for developing and practicing therapists is reflected in many of the American Physical Therapy Associations core documents such as the Guide to Physical Therapy Practice, 18 A Normative Model of Physical Therapist Pro./sional Education, 19 the Evaluative Criteria for Accreditation of Education Programs jor the Preparation of Physical Therapists,20 and the PhYsical Therapy Clinical Performance Instrument 21 A key question, then, for physical therapy educators is how to best teach and help students learn about patient education in the context of the professional curriculum. How can we foster the development of effective patient educators? Physical therapist professional preparation occurs in two primary environments-academic or classroom settings and clinical settingseach of which have unique physical, social, and cultural characteristics that create the milieu in which learning occurs. In this article, we discuss teaching and learning about patient education in each of these environments and consider what aspects of experience in these settings might enhance or impede the development of competent patient educators. We do not want, however, to create an artificial separation between these two environments with respect to what can be taught and learned about patient education. There is much to be learned in both settings, although there may be some differences in the form and nature of what is taught and learned and who is doing the teaching about patient education. We see the professional educators job as one of creating opportunities for linking classroom instruction and clinical experience so that students can navigate between these two environments with an ever-increasing understanding and valuing of the centrality and artistry of effective patient education in clinical work and with an expanding repertoire of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that might help them grow into exceptional teachers of patients and other care providers. In addressing teaching and learning about patient education in professional curricula. we take a personal and practical approach that reflects our own learning about this topic over many years of teaching in physical therapist educational programs. Although our experience has been primarily in physical therapist education, we believe that what we have learned is also pertinent to physical therapist assistant educators who, like us, are concerned with the development of practitioners who are effective patient educators. …

The Tale of Two Promising Novices

Several years ago, seven colleagues from the United States interested in the early professional development of novice physical therapists undertook a qualitative study to explore this under-investigated area of therapist learning and growth. We were building upon the work of Jensen and colleagues (1999, 2007) who had completed a landmark study of expertise in physical therapy practice in the U.S. Their work raised this intriguing question: What factors, internal or external, led some therapists toward growth into mastery yet not others? We decided to begin our search for answers by studying promising novice therapists during their first 3 years of practice. More details on the study design, methods and findings have been reported elsewhere (Black et al., 2010; Mostrom et al., 2011).