Promoting Professional Behaviours in Physical Therapy Students Using Standardized Patient Feedback

Abstract

Purpose: Physical therapy (PT) students receive feedback on their professional behaviours from academic and clinical faculty. Another avenue for providing feedback to PT students is by using standardized patients (SPs). Very little research is available on the impact of SPs’ specific feedback on whether, and how, PT students learn professional behaviour, and what research is available has focused on clinical competencies, communities of practice, and broad assessments of professional behaviours. The purpose of this study was to record PT students’ perspectives on how combined verbal and written SP feedback affected their professional behaviours. Method: The sample of convenience consisted of seven students enrolled in a PT professional education programme in the northeastern United States before starting their first full-time clinical experience. The students agreed to participate in an SP experience focused on professional behaviours. This study used a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ perspectives on receiving a combination of verbal and written SP feedback. Results: The students’ perspectives on receiving SP feedback were categorized into four themes: seeing through the patient’s eyes; SPs offer unique contributions to student learning; timely, verbal feedback adds a deeper understanding of professional behaviours in preparation for the clinic; and verbal feedback promotes student self-efficacy of professional behaviours. Conclusions: Using SPs’ written and verbal feedback in the curriculum can be a valuable tool for enhancing the development of PT students’ professional behaviour.