Shelley Payne, DHS, PT, ATC

Peter Rundquist, PhD, PT, Julie Gahimer, EdD, PT,

Bill Harper, PhD

“Guided by integrity, life-long learning, and a commitment to comprehensive and accessible health programs for all people, physical therapists and physical therapist assistants will render evidence-based services throughout the continuum of care and improve quality of life for society.” (Vision 2020, APTA)

Be prepared to be a

lifelong learner and

keep current with

evidence-based

professional practice.

(ACOTE Standards,

January 2008)

Evidence Based Care

Life-long Learners

Reflection

Set professional

learning goals

Assess professional

knowledge needs

Execute a learning

plan

Evaluate outcomes of

learning plan Shokar, 2002

Huynh, 2009

Healey, 2008

PHYSICAL THERAPY OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

National Physical

Therapy Examination

(NPTE)

Clinical Performance

Instrument (CPI)

GPA standards

National Board for

Certification in

Occupational Therapy

(NBCOT)

AOTA Fieldwork

Performance Evaluation

GPA standards

Component of the learning profile associated with life-long learning skills and attitudes

Concept first developed by Malcolm Knowles (1975)

Learner can diagnose their learning needs, seek and use appropriate solutions, and self-evaluate their performance

Lucy Guglielmino

58 item self-report

instrument

5 point Likert scale

scoring for each item

Well validated within

the literature

Max=290

Average score= 126

Score ≥ 227= “highly

self-directed”

Clinical

Education

Real Patients

Real Settings

CI Feedback

PT and OT students NOT “highly self-directed”;

nursing, physician assistant, medical technolgy

students & faculty WERE (Linares, 1999)

SDLRS weakly correlated (.26) to higher

ratings of medical students by clinical

preceptors (Shokar, 2002)

Advanced pharmacy practice experiences did

not have a significant impact (Huynh)

1) To determine if the final clinical education

experience improves the SDLR of Doctorate of

Physical Therapy (DPT) and Master of

Occupational Therapy (MOT) students

2) To determine if there was a difference in self-

directed learning readiness between DPT and

MOT students

1) There will be no significant difference for DPT

or MOT students after their final clinical

education experience for their scores on the

SDLRS

2) There will be no significant difference between

DPT and MOT students in pre-test or post-test

scores for SDLR

Email to program directors to request permission to solicit participation from 3rd year DPT and 2nd year MOT students from each institution

On-site recruitment

Consented individually

Consent structured to provide informed consent for pre-test and post-test

Subjects completed

assessment packet

containing SDLRS

Pre-test: within one

month prior to

beginning final clinical

experience

Post-test: within one

month of completion

after final clinical

experience

Able to combine data from the individual institutions to represent the PT and OT professions

2x2 mixed model ANOVA used to analyze the SDLRS scores between professions and across time

Alpha level set at .05 for all analyses

Response rate of 73%

102 individuals

completed the pre-test

100 completed the

post-test

Subjects

Female

Male

Program

n

Pre-test SDLRS mean

Standard Deviation

Post-test SDLRS mean

Standard Deviation

PT 62 224.29 17.59 231.58 18.02

OT 40 221.30 20.93 225.55 21.92

Significant difference

in pre-test to post-test

SDLRS mean scores

(p=.01)

DPT and MOT

students had a

significant increase in

SDLRS scores from

pre-test to post-test

1) There will be no difference in student scores on

the SDLRS after the final clinical experience

This hypothesis was rejected

SDLRS scores increased significantly after the clinical

experience for both groups.

2) There will be no significant difference between

DPT and MOT students for the SDLRS scores at

pre-test or post-test

This hypothesis was accepted

No significant difference between DPT and MOT

students for SDLR at pre-test or post-test

Pre-test scores

indicated both groups

were „average‟ self-

directed learners

Post-test scores for

both groups improved

for both groups

DPT students at post-

test were „above

average‟

PT and OT students to be „average‟ with regard

to SDLRS scores (Linares)

Mean values for SDLRS in this study were

lower than those reported for medical students

(Shokar)

SDLR scores were not improved after

advanced pharmacy practice experiences

(Huyhn)

Clinical education

is a vital

component to the

development of

DPT and MOT

students as life-

long learners

Clinical education

also increased the

students‟ level of

intrinsic motivation

for learning

Program Program Length

Clinical Education Length

University “A” DPT

36 months 39 weeks

University “B” DPT

36 months 32 weeks

University “A” MOT

30 months 30 weeks

University “B” MOT

27 months 30 weeks

Self-report instrument

Larger DPT sample

Results may not be generalizable beyond

these institutions

Longitudinal analysis would be better for curricular

evaluation purposes

Correlate SDLRS scores to GPA,

board examinations, or clinical evaluation

scores

Life-Long Learners

Modified Instructional Strategies

Curriculum Evaluation Tools [SDLRS & AMS]