Evaluation of clinical education centers in physical therapy.

The purpose of this research was to test a set of 20 physical therapy clinical education standards and three related evaluation forms that were published in 1976 by Moore and Perry. Mail questionnaires and telephone interviews with 134 Academic Coordinators of Clinical Education, 708 Center Coordinators of Clinical Education, 15 Clinical Instructors, and 52 students were used to collect data reported here. The resulting standards and evaluation forms were found to be practical, reliable, and valid for use by personnel of physical therapy and physical therapist assistant educational programs responsible for selecting clinical education centers for part-time and full-time students. We recommend that the standards and evaluation forms be used by personnel of physical therapy educational programs, clinical education centers, and selected committees of the American Physical Therapy Association because the standards and forms incorporate aspects of clinical education currently believed important to providing high-quality learning experiences in physical therapy practice.