INTRODUCTION

This project is a course on physical therapist clinical decision-making.

The online materials include pictures / video of the Skilled Nursing Facility where the student “pretends” to be practicing (“Additional Images – Gym (Resources)”). As a Clinical Instructor, one of the things I tell my students is that even before they interact with the patient, they have to do a quick scan of the room where they are going to be working. This will provide them an idea of what resources are available when they carry out the plan of care. This is also an effective strategy when providing care to a patient who might become physically aggressive.

The online materials also include unit objectives and videos either created by the instructor or curated by the instructor. The videos will be processed with a technology such as Ed Puzzle which will allow the instructor to embed the video with questions – for formative assessment and to help the students focus on important concepts which they will be using for the F2F session.

The online materials also include articles from peer-reviewed publications to engage the student in evidence-based practice and allow the instructor to model how evidence is used in daily practice. The online materials also includes a rubric template which can be used for developing rubrics for the (1) evidence / article Infographic / Annotated Bibliography / video or audio recording, (2) post-F2F Clinical Decision-Making (CDM) session reflection, (3) student critiques of completed Initial Examination forms from all groups posted online, and (4) individual student exercise prescriptions.

The F2F materials , on the other hand, include 2 articles on Hypothesis-Oriented Algorithm for Clinicians to introduce the concept of inductive clinical decision-making (to be used during the first class session). It includes the case study, from which the students will be formulating a plan of care in their small groups, and a blank Physical Therapy Initial Examination form which will be completed by the group for their presentation the following week. It also contains a rubric for the F2F presentation (or completed group Initial Physical Therapy Examination form with a 1-page explanation of decisions made by the group during the F2F session if they do not present in front of the class). The F2F materials also has a link to a repository of case studies published in peer-reviewed physical therapy journals which can be used for the course. The F2F materials will also include a rubric for the evidence infographic / video / audio / annotated bibliography. The variety of media options is consistent with the principles of Universal Design for Learning.