Abstract:
Objectives: Clinical education is an important component of physiotherapy education. The
students’ and clinical educators’ viewpoints about different aspects of education are being
analyzed worldwide for the promotion of educational services. The aim of this study was
to identify the challenges of clinical education based on the experiences of physiotherapy
students and educators.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using content analysis method. Data were
collected through semi-structured interviews using a purposeful sampling method with a
maximum variation based on some factors like first-hand experience, expertise, and their
willingness to participate in this research. Data collection was continued until the point of data
saturation was attained. The participants included 17 senior physiotherapy students and nine
clinical educators with over three years of experience.
Results: After verbatim transcription of the interviews and data analysis, 360 initial or
open codes were extracted. The related codes were derived from the students’ and clinical
educators’ experiences and challenges and were categorized into three concepts: A. Personal
and professional characteristics of physiotherapy students; B. Personal and professional
characteristics of clinical educators; and C. Inefficient educational system.
Discussion: Clinical education efficiency requires a common understanding of the long –term
complications involved in addressing the existing barriers. Understanding these challenges can
equip the policy makers and educational planners of physiotherapy departments with valuable
information for improvement in the quality of physiotherapy clinical education and preventing
oversight of clinical education and programs. Thus, the study emphasized the need for
comprehensive management
Machine summary:
Based on the previous studies concerning quality of clinical education in other courses, some problems such as loss of programming, inadequate equipments, insuffi- cient clinical abilities of students, inappropriate trainers, insufficient student assessments, impractical teaching, deficiency of practical training, lack of student motiva- tion to learn, irresponsibility and irregularity of student and clinical trainer, and poor university supervision and management have been identified [6-12].
Also, as shown in Table 3 (the results of the analysis of data from interviews with clinical trainers) 11 sub cat- egories were extracted as follows: lack of responsibil- ity of clinical trainer, insufficient clinical skill level of trainer, lack of students discipline, inadequate participa- tion of students in education, lack of practical knowledge in students, poor theoretical training of some trainers, poor practical training of some trainers, lack of plan- ning, unsuitable training environment, lack of specific curriculum and educational approach, and poor manage- ment of clinical training programs.
For example, one of participant described the lack of responsibility and motivation of some of clinical educators as follows: ʺ while few teachers are responsible, some of the teach- ers are often absent in both clinical and theory courses ʺ (Student, Personal interview, Date).
To cite the case of inadequate theoretical training, a participant said: the contents of theoretical courses that we have been taught Inadequate practical training Lack of training supervision Unsuitable training environment are not enough to meet the expectations of the clinical educators (Student, Personal interview, Date).