Analysis of the Clinical Education Situation framework: a tool for identifying the root cause of student failure in the United States

Doctor of physical therapy preparation requires extensive time in precepted clinical education, which involves multiple stakeholders. Student outcomes in clinical education are impacted by many factors, and, in the case of failure, it can be challenging to determine which factors played a primary role in the poor result. Using existing root-cause analysis processes, the authors developed and implemented a framework designed to identify the causes of student failure in clinical education. This framework, when applied to a specific student failure event, can be used to identify the factors that contributed to the situation and to reveal opportunities for improvement in both the clinical and academic environments. A root-cause analysis framework can help to drive change at the programmatic level, and future studies should focus on the framework’s application to a variety of clinical and didactic settings.