Clinical Education Assessment
Clinical Education Program Assessment and Expectations
Evaluation is the professional judgment about a student's ability to meet the established standards and clinical practicum objectives. Students are assessed on clinical performance for each clinical experience using the PTA Clinical Instrument Evaluation Tool (CIET).
All Clinical Practicum courses earn grades of “pass/fail”. In order to pass each clinical experience, students must earn a minimum overall grade of 75% and achieve the minimum level for designated clinical performance as described below:
Summary of Minimum Rating Performance Expectations for All Clinical Practicums
| Clinical Practicum | CP I- PTA 125 (1-week) |
CP II- PTA 220 (3-week) |
CP III- PTA 240 (5-week) | CP IV- PTA 245 (6-week) |
|
PTA CIET Professional Behaviors: Safety, Professional Ethics, and Initiation |
Most of the Time | Most of the Time | Always | Always |
| PTA CIET Professional Behaviors: Communication Skills |
Sometimes | Most of the Time | Most of the Time | Always |
| PTA CIET Patient Management Skills: Data Collection & Interventions | Well Below | Below | At that Level for Familiar Patients | At that Level for All Patients |
| Caseload Expectation (by last day of clinical experience) | N/A | At least 50% | At least 75% | 100% |
| Clarkson College Professionalism Expectation | Developing | Intermediate | Entry-level | Entry-level |
Clinical Education Assessment Instruments/Tools
Exxat Student Profile and Clinical Questionnaire
Prior to each clinical experience, all students will complete/update their online student profile and clinical questionnaire in Exxat. Students will send their CI a link to their profile prior to the clinical start date. Information includes contact information, prior clinical education experience, self-identified expectations and goals of the clinical experience.
PTA CIET
The Clinical Internship Evaluation Tool (CIET) was developed by the University of Pittsburgh and has been established as a validated assessment tool for PT students during clinical education experiences and has been in use since 1998. The PTA CIET has recently been adapted, with permission by the author, to assess clinical performance specific to the roles and responsibilities of the PTA student during clinical education experiences. Clarkson College utilizes the PTA CIET, operational definitions, and rating scale for both students and CIs to evaluate student performance during all clinical experiences. The PTA CIET is accessed online through Exxat.
PTA CIET User Training
All students and clinicians serving as a CI to any Clarkson College PTA student must complete the provided training to ensure student performance is assessed accurately. Training is free and provided via Canvas Catalog and includes a background on the CIET, operational definitions used and rating scale definitions. Upon completing the training module, all users must successfully complete a post-training assessment. A link to the free, online course will be provided by the ACCE, along with supplemental resource documents, which can be viewed at any time, once the course has successfully been completed. This training only needs to be completed once.
PTA Student Evaluation of Clinical Experience and Clinical Instruction (SECECI)
The Clarkson College PTA program utilizes the APTA SECECI form. This was developed to provide a uniform approach for students to evaluate clinical education as well as the overall clinical experience. By utilizing the SECECI form, students are able to evaluate the quality of the clinical learning experience and clinical instructors (CIs) as well as academic preparation for the specific learning experience.
Students are expected to actively engage in their learning experiences by providing candid feedback, both formative and summative, about the learning experience with summative feedback offered at midterm and/or final evaluations.
PTA Student Evaluation of Clinical Experience and Clinical Instruction (SECECI)
Clinical Education Program Assessment
Clarkson College is very grateful and appreciative for the time, effort and expertise that all of our CCCEs/CIs provide to our students to assist them in their clinical education. We value feedback and actively seek input to continually make improvements to our clinical education program.
After each clinical practicum, the Course Coordinator sends out two brief surveys: one for CCCEs and CIs to assess the PTA Clinical Education Program and another for CIs to complete a self-assessment. Both of these surveys are vitally important to the continued success of the clinical education program, and we greatly value your comments.
An email will be sent to CCCEs/CIs within one to two weeks after the end of the clinical practicum, which will include individual links to the surveys.