FATMA EKEN, EMEL TAŞVURAN HORATA
Acta Medica Ruha - 2025;3(1):16-25
Introduction: Clinical practice courses in physiotherapy are very important for training clinically competent physiotherapists. The quality of students’ clinical skills training can be enhanced by rigorously monitoring and assessing their performance in these environments. Objective: To evaluate the observations and practices in the course forms used in the clinical practice education of physiotherapy students. Methods: In this descriptive study, the clinical practice education of fourth-year physiotherapy students was evaluated with forms filled out by 170 students in the 2022-2023 academic year. Results: Students achieved the minimum number of observations and applications specified in the forms for each application. The observations, evaluations and applications made by the students in clinical practice are as follows: It was found that there were exercise applications with 10.37%, electrotherapy applications with 9.49% and some evaluation methods (pain, joint range of motion and muscle strength) with 5.4%. On the other hand, there was limited participation in some neonatal assessments/applications and some specific electrotherapy (biofeedback, iontophoresis and hydrotherapy) approaches. Students mostly participated in exercises for general physiotherapy and neurological rehabilitation units. The students used electrotherapy methods mainly in pediatric and orthopedic therapies. Conclusion: The clinical practice forms tried for the first time in this study made a limited contribution to monitoring the clinical practice performance of students. Forms have the potential to provide feedback to students and educators in areas such as planning and supervision. Ensuring that students are involved in the development of the forms and getting their views can be useful.
