Incorporating Patient Safety to Establish Defensible Standard Setting Approaches for Physical Therapy Clinical Skills Assessment

• In Event: Defining Competence: Milestones and Skills Assessment

Abstract

This study explores the use of patient safety approaches for establishing meaningful standards for physical therapist (PT) students’ clinical skills. The minimum passing standards resulting from the Angoff and Patient Safety methods were meaningfully different than those from the Borderline Group and Contrasting Groups methods. Logistic regression modeling explained 78.6% (Nagelkerke R2) of the variance in judges’ pass/fail global ratings of student performance. Increasing Safety Score was associated with an increased likelihood of receiving a pass rating, while Total Score did not have a statistically significant association. These results suggest that the judges’ conceptualization of competent performance was influenced by students’ safety more than overall performance, supporting the use of the Patient Safety standard setting methods for PT assessments.

Authors

• Rachel S. Tappan, Northwestern University

• Megan L. Freeland, Northwestern University

• Elizabeth E. Holland, Northwestern University

• Yoon Soo Park, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Heidi R Roth, Northwestern University