ACAPT's National Consortium of Clinical Educators (NCCE) has taken a leading role in addressing challenges that COVID-19 has created, encouraging innovation and being pro-active.
It's always been tough to figure out clinical education schedules and placements, in part because of the number of physical therapy students and capacity in the clinical education community; the pandemic only created more issues as some clinics reduced their available clinical options to maintain patient and student safety.
ACAPT & NCCE issued guidance for resuming clinical education, including:
- strategies for maximizing capacity by reassessing the curriculum to ensure accreditation standards are met in an efficient manner,
- using “innovative” scheduling and prioritization for clinical education placements, and
- sharing resources across academic programs and clinical sites.
Collaborative clinical education - a model with more than one student per clinical instructor - has emerged as one strategy to create a supportive environment for students and CIs through peer learning and guided academic support. Working with APTA's Academy of Education CE-SIG, NCCE has coordinated interactive webinars that covered the 2:1 model. The authors have shared this Collaborative Model of Clinical Education Toolkit and Resource Handbook.
Topics and conversations about clinical education are evolving every day! Be sure to join this open forum on clinical education, which is open to all, but you must join as an ACAPT member for free first.
Is your DCE and clinical partner a NCCE member?
Each ACAPT member institution should support the NCCE participation of your clinical education team consisting of at least one academic and one clinical faculty member. See details on how to register for FREE here. Sign up today!
Other resources