Perception of Undergraduate Physiotherapy Students Regarding Clinical Instructors’ Behaviour During Clinical Training; A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Professional therapists must be prepared through clinical training, which forms the foundation of physiotherapy education. The effectiveness of the interactions between students and clinical instructors can help students learn more in the clinical setting. Objective: To find out the undergraduate physiotherapy students’ perceptions regarding the clinical instructors’ behaviours during clinical training. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 260 undergraduates of Doctor of Physical Therapy from different institutes of Faisalabad and Sialkot after ethical approval from September 2021 to March 2022. Students in 3rd year or 5th semester and above were included. A clinical instructor behaviour instrument was utilized to get the responses and SPSS version 21.0 to extract the results. Mean and standard deviations were computed for individual subsets of the instrument to find the perception. Results: Mean age ± standard deviation was 22.79 ± 15.75 years ranging from 21 to 25 years. Among the participants, 226 (86.92%) were female and 34 (13.07%) were male. A total score of all five categories of the clinical instructor behaviour instrument was found 116.17 out of a maximum possible score of 150. Conclusion: It was concluded that the perception of students regarding the clinical instructors’ behaviours during clinical training was found positive.