Balancing the Scales: Factors Shaping Physical Therapy Clinical Education Capacity

Purpose: To explore the current perspectives of physiotherapists regarding the factors and opportunities for increasing clinical education (CE) capacity in the Greater Toronto Area. Method: For our study design we used a cross-sectional qualitative descriptive design with focus group methodology to gain a thorough understanding of PTs’ attitudes, enablers, and barriers to engage in CE. Subsequently, we used the six-step thematic analysis process proposed by Braun and Clarke. Results: We conducted five focus groups for a total of 15 participants. Five themes emerged from the data: workplace efficiency, workplace factors, university factors, student factors, and clinician factors. Clinicians’ attitudes were found to be motivators to engage in CE. However, the perceived or actual decrease that hosting a student has on the clinical instructor's work efficiency was stated as a barrier. Conclusions: The current health care shortage in Canada, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, justifies the need to train more physiotherapists. As more studies explore the factors influencing the decision to engage in CE, an ongoing collaborative approach between the different stakeholders in CE is necessary to increase the capacity for placement opportunities.