Highlights
- •Hand therapy clinical educators desire students with strong interpersonal skills.
- •Hand therapy clinical educators want students to be honest about what they know.
- •Hand therapy clinical educators want students to be willing to self-study.
- •Professional behaviors, clinical reasoning skills, and cultural competence are desired characteristics.
Abstract
Study Design: Mixed method design.
Introduction: Conceptualizing the desired characteristics of a student for a clinical
site is vital information during the matching process.
Purpose of the Study: The objective of this study was to identify the specific student
characteristics preferred by the hand therapy clinician educator.
Methods: A questionnaire was emailed to members of the American Society of Hand Therapists.
A semi structured interview was developed to investigate the topic further. Data was
collected and analyzed to determine descriptive statistics and themes regarding the
preferred student characteristics.
Results: The most common themes found regarding desired student characteristics by
hand therapists were students that possess strong interpersonal skills, a willingness
to self-study and learn independently, and students that exhibit professional behaviors.
Discussion: If students are successfully matched to clinical placements, this may
encourage sites to take students in the future and also reduce the need for the clinical
educator or university to address problems that arise during the experience.
Conclusion: Hand therapy clinical educators desire students with strong interpersonal
skills, a willingness to self-study and learn independently, demonstrate professionalism
and clinical reasoning skills, who possess a sincere interest in hand therapy and
demonstrate cultural competence when interacting with patients from different backgrounds
and social environments. Finally, hand therapy clinical educators want students to
be honest about what they know and what they don't know regarding hand therapy.
Keywords
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References
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JHT Read for Credit
Quiz: # 942
Record your answers on the Return Answer Form found on the tear-out coupon at the back of this issue or to complete online and use a credit card, go to JHTReadforCredit.com. There is only one best answer for each question.
- # 1.The authors sought to identify
- a.an existing questionnaire that could be used to screen potential affiliating students
- b.fatal flaws in aspiring hand therapy students
- c.desirable traits in potential affiliating students
- d.traits of students earning top grades in therapy school
- a.
- # 2.Data were generated from
- a.semi-structured interviews following completion of a questionnaire
- b.observing joint interviews between the student and the clinical advisor
- c.tightly scripted interviews following completion of a questionnaire
- d.Zoom calls between all CHTs on the staff of the affiliating clinic
- a.
- # 3.Highly desired characteristics were
- a.professional behavior
- b.interpersonal skills
- c.honest/realistic assessment of their knowledge of hand therapy
- d.all of the above
- a.
- # 4.Raw data were collected from
- a.a computerized data collection tool developed specifically for this study
- b.the Stanford-Berkeley Data Survey tool
- c.the Survey Monkey site
- d.an audio review of all interviews
- a.
- # 5.In addition to listing the most sought-after characteristics, the authors described a method for determining if a potential affiliating student possessed these characteristics
- a.true
- b.false
- a.
When submitting to the HTCC for re-certification, please batch your JHT RFC certificates in groups of 3 or more to get full credit.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 13, 2022
Accepted:
October 7,
2021
Received in revised form:
October 4,
2021
Received:
August 18,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
