Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students

BACKGROUND: Standardised patients are used in medical education to expose students to clinical contexts and facilitate transition to clinical practice, and this approach is gaining momentum in physiotherapy programs. Expense and availability of trained standardised patients are factors limiting wide...

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Autores principales: Mandrusiak, Allison M, Isles, Rosemary, Chang, Angela T, Choy, Nancy L Low, Toppenberg, Rowena, McCook, Donna, Smith, Michelle D, O’Leary, Karina, Brauer, Sandra G
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24885224
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-105
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author Mandrusiak, Allison M
Isles, Rosemary
Chang, Angela T
Choy, Nancy L Low
Toppenberg, Rowena
McCook, Donna
Smith, Michelle D
O’Leary, Karina
Brauer, Sandra G
author_facet Mandrusiak, Allison M
Isles, Rosemary
Chang, Angela T
Choy, Nancy L Low
Toppenberg, Rowena
McCook, Donna
Smith, Michelle D
O’Leary, Karina
Brauer, Sandra G
author_sort Mandrusiak, Allison M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Standardised patients are used in medical education to expose students to clinical contexts and facilitate transition to clinical practice, and this approach is gaining momentum in physiotherapy programs. Expense and availability of trained standardised patients are factors limiting widespread adoption, and accessing clinical visits with real patients can be challenging. This study addressed these issues by engaging senior students as standardised patients for junior students. It evaluated how this approach impacted self-reported constructs of both the junior and senior students. METHODS: Learning activities for undergraduate physiotherapy students were developed in five courses (Neurology, Cardiorespiratory and three Musculoskeletal courses) so that junior students (Year 2 and 3) could develop skills and confidence in patient interview, physical examination and patient management through their interaction with standardised patients played by senior students (Year 4). Surveys were administered before and after the interactions to record junior students’ self-reported confidence, communication, preparedness for clinic, and insight into their abilities; and senior students’ confidence and insight into what it is like to be a patient. Satisfaction regarding this learning approach was surveyed in both the junior and senior students. RESULTS: A total of 253 students completed the surveys (mean 92.5% response rate). Across all courses, junior students reported a significant (all P < 0.037) improvement following the standardised patient interaction in their: preparedness for clinic, communication with clients, confidence with practical skills, and understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the learning activities. Senior students demonstrated a significant improvement in their confidence in providing feedback and insight into their own learning (P < 0.001). All students reported high satisfaction with this learning experience (mean score 8.5/10). CONCLUSION: This new approach to peer-assisted learning using senior students as standardised patients resulted in positive experiences for both junior and senior students across a variety of physiotherapy areas, activities, and stages within a physiotherapy program. These findings support the engagement of senior students as standardised patients to enhance learning within physiotherapy programs, and may have application across other disciplines to address challenges associated with accessing real patients via clinical visits or utilising actors as standardised patients.
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spelling pubmed-40357162014-05-29 Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students Mandrusiak, Allison M Isles, Rosemary Chang, Angela T Choy, Nancy L Low Toppenberg, Rowena McCook, Donna Smith, Michelle D O’Leary, Karina Brauer, Sandra G BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: Standardised patients are used in medical education to expose students to clinical contexts and facilitate transition to clinical practice, and this approach is gaining momentum in physiotherapy programs. Expense and availability of trained standardised patients are factors limiting widespread adoption, and accessing clinical visits with real patients can be challenging. This study addressed these issues by engaging senior students as standardised patients for junior students. It evaluated how this approach impacted self-reported constructs of both the junior and senior students. METHODS: Learning activities for undergraduate physiotherapy students were developed in five courses (Neurology, Cardiorespiratory and three Musculoskeletal courses) so that junior students (Year 2 and 3) could develop skills and confidence in patient interview, physical examination and patient management through their interaction with standardised patients played by senior students (Year 4). Surveys were administered before and after the interactions to record junior students’ self-reported confidence, communication, preparedness for clinic, and insight into their abilities; and senior students’ confidence and insight into what it is like to be a patient. Satisfaction regarding this learning approach was surveyed in both the junior and senior students. RESULTS: A total of 253 students completed the surveys (mean 92.5% response rate). Across all courses, junior students reported a significant (all P < 0.037) improvement following the standardised patient interaction in their: preparedness for clinic, communication with clients, confidence with practical skills, and understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the learning activities. Senior students demonstrated a significant improvement in their confidence in providing feedback and insight into their own learning (P < 0.001). All students reported high satisfaction with this learning experience (mean score 8.5/10). CONCLUSION: This new approach to peer-assisted learning using senior students as standardised patients resulted in positive experiences for both junior and senior students across a variety of physiotherapy areas, activities, and stages within a physiotherapy program. These findings support the engagement of senior students as standardised patients to enhance learning within physiotherapy programs, and may have application across other disciplines to address challenges associated with accessing real patients via clinical visits or utilising actors as standardised patients. BioMed Central 2014-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4035716/ /pubmed/24885224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-105 Text en Copyright © 2014 Mandrusiak et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mandrusiak, Allison M
Isles, Rosemary
Chang, Angela T
Choy, Nancy L Low
Toppenberg, Rowena
McCook, Donna
Smith, Michelle D
O’Leary, Karina
Brauer, Sandra G
Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title_full Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title_fullStr Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title_full_unstemmed Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title_short Senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
title_sort senior physiotherapy students as standardised patients for junior students enhances self-efficacy and satisfaction in both junior and senior students
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24885224
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-105
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