A Clinical Leader’s Influence in Physical Therapy Education: A Case Study
Physical therapist education is at a crossroads due to unconstrained academic growth, surmounting student debt, unbalanced supply and demand of the workforce, declining reimbursement, and health inequities. The profession has questioned whether PT education is developing practitioners ready to meet the complex healthcare needs of society. PT students spend more than 20% of their education engaged in workplace learning, yet little has changed in clinical education over the last fifty years. Clinical leaders are uniquely positioned to influence PT education by establishing a culture fostering professional growth. The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory case study is to describe how clinical leaders influence PT education through excellence and innovation in the clinical setting. The aims of this study include describing the leadership and collaborative characteristics of clinical leaders which influence teams. The qualitative methodology included interviews and focus groups with clinical leaders, Directors of Clinical Education, and clinical instructors from three organizations and triangulated with organizational documents. Codes to describe clinical leaders and the collaborative nature of teams were developed. The codes informed emerging themes for leader behaviors that influenced a learning culture. These themes included setting the vision, leading by example, and investing in people. Three evidence-based solutions are proposed to address clinical leader development. These include developing a specialty track in leadership in the entry-level PT curriculum, an interdisciplinary leadership series, and a residency program for board-certification for clinical educators. Keywords: optimal learning environment, clinical leader, learning culture, PT education
Clinical Education, Clinical Leader, Learning Culture, Optimal Learning Environment, PT Education
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