Hands-on Teaching in a Hands-Off Environment (2020 Faculty Showcase)

Clinical Skills is a foundational class in the Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum, requiring hands on teaching and skill assessment. We have restrictions of social distancing, PPEs, time constraints, limited space. Strategies included: 

• Pre-recorded lectures. Labs are divided into four groups of 15 students per room, each room having 5 groups of 3 students. Students only work within these groups while wearing PPE. On lab days two groups come into two rooms connected via Zoom. 
• Virtual lab sessions utilizing ‘dummies’ 
• Virtual check offs and hands on exam 
• Skill assessments are now being done in groups of 3’s with one student being the evaluator, providing ‘peer’ feedback. 
• Some of the previously independent ‘paper’ case activities are being done during zoom meetings in small groups to facilitate group discussions. 
• Live Integrated Clinical Experiences were replaced by 3 videos of PT interventions being performed in three different settings followed by a reflection paper comparing the three settings.

The major benefit we have observed is that we increased the number of TAs and students are getting more individual attention and feedback than previous years. They are also getting comfortable in assessing each other’s performance and providing feedback.