Student Perceptions and Understanding of Client-Therapist Interactions Within the Inpatient Acute Care Environment: Qualitative Study

Background Physical therapists practicing in inpatient acute care settings in the United States work in a 21st century health care system that requires professional competence in clinical reasoning and decision making. For doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students, the development of confidence in the patient evaluation and the professional skills necessary for managing the inpatient environment can be challenging.

Objective The study's purpose was to understand whether the early exposure of students to inpatient settings informed their understanding of the thought processes and actions of experienced clinicians during client interactions.

Design A qualitative design was used.

Methods Thirty-three DPT students working in inpatient settings were recruited from 15 unique inpatient hospital (acute care and rehabilitation) facilities with a convenience sampling technique. Reflective data were collected for 1 month with clinician-facilitated discussion boards.

Results Four themes emerged: environment, communication, evaluation, and client-therapist interaction. The themes informed a conceptual model depicting the observation by DPT students of factors that influenced interactions between clients and experienced clinicians in inpatient settings. Reflection on the what, the how, and the why that informed clinical decisions enabled students to recognize the situated nature of evaluation and treatment approaches.

Limitations The use of a sample from 1 year of a DPT program at one university reduced the generalizability of the results.

Conclusions Limited research has examined student perceptions of the interactions of experienced clinicians with clients in inpatient acute care settings. More research is needed to understand the impact of exposing students to the thoughts and actions of therapists working in such settings earlier within DPT curricula.