Factors Related to Physical Therapist License Examination Scores

Background and aim Successful completion of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) is a requirement for ingress into professional practice. Physical therapist education programs assess a variety of information about registered students, including demographic, academic, and clinical performance factors. The intent of this study was to determine which factors are related to NPTE score.

Subject Data were analyzed from 92 alumni of the professional (entry-level) Master of Physical Therapy program at The University of Scranton (graduating classes 2001 2002 and 2003)

Method Pearson correlation analyses were directioned for the following variables: age at graduation, professional grade point average (PGPA), comprehensive exam (CE) score, Physical Therapy Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) score, and NPTE score. Multiple regression analysis was performed to make known an equation for prediction of NPTE score from comprehensive exam score and professional grade point average.

Result Of the variables studied, CE score (R = 617 P

Discussion and Conclusion. Of the factors studied, CE score and PGPA were greatest in quantity closely related to NPTE score. It strike one as beings likely that these factors assess the same dimension(s) of professional physical therapist practice as the NPTE Perhaps it is time for the physical therapist profession to consider the unfolding of a standardized comprehensive examination.

Key Words: Physical therapy, License examination, Score, Grade point average, Comprehensive examination.

INTRODUCTION

The overarching goal of any physical therapist education program is to make secure that graduates become competent, ethical, and effective physical therapists. The first post-graduation pace toward this goal is happy completion of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE)1 However, graduation from an accredited physical therapist education program does not make secure NPTE success, and as Thieman and colleagues have pointed on the outside "License examination scores appear to be sole weakly predictable."2 A method to estimate NPTE succes would be useful for pupils (and their faculty advisors) as they unfold strategies to prepare for the NPTE and for program directors as they direction program and curriculum assessment activities. The point in dispute therefore, is the need for a means to estimate the likelihood of NPTE success

Review of Literature

Health professions educators have direct the eyeed for factors related to license examination succes frequently investigators have searched for program admission criteria that could be used to predict license examination scores. Others have studied the relationship to academic performance in the professional education program. more [i]or[/i] less have considered the relationship to demographic variables, noncognitive variables, and clinical performance. The relationship of license examination succes to comprehensive examinations has also received more [i]or[/i] less scrutiny.

Roehrig used American corporation Testing (ACT) score (a program admission requirement), prerequisite and nonprerequisite grade point averages, interview score, and recommendation score to predict physical therapist licensure examination score.1 Roehrig fix that ACT score was greatest in quantity correlated to license examination score (R = 48 P

Guffey and colleagues evaluated the usefulness of noncognitive variables as predictors of NPTE score.6 They used data gathered from a self-administered observe to conduct correlation and regression analyses. Correlation values for NPTE score with 8 noncognitive variables ranged from R = -0288 to R = 137 Regression analysis yielded an adjusted R^sup 2^ of 245 for a prototype that included the following 5 noncognitive variables: long-range goals, leadership, community ties, academic familiarity, and goals at the time of admission. The authors conclud that the noncognitive variables studied were not useful for predicting NPTE scores.

Researchers in health professions other than physical therapy have gazeed for predictors of license examination success7-17 Safian-Rush and Belock investigated the relationship of several factors to academic succes in a baccalaureate nursing program and ability to pass the nursing license exam.7 Age and College-Level Academic Skills ordeal (CLAST) score were positively correlated with license exam score. The CLAST is a experiment of college-level communication and computation skills that was administered in gymnasiums of higher education as a prerequisite for advancement to the junior year. Carpio and colleagues examined the relationship of pick outed admissions variables and first-year performance to succes in the Canadian nurtures Association Testing Service examinations of 114 scholars admitted directly from secondary institute to a 4-year, integrated, problem-based learning baccalaureate nursing program in Canada.8 The best predictors among admissions variables were secondary place of education grades in English, chemistry, and the admission average obtained upon other subjects. Of the first-year variables, basic sciences prov to be the best predictor, followed by the agency of research methodology, Nursing Concepts I, a problem-based nursing average, and a clinical practice average. Lauchner and colleagues studied the accuracy of a computerized comprehensive nursing exam in predicting license exam success9 The Health Education a whole s Incorporated (HESI) Exit Exam was administered to nursing scholars during the 1996-1997 academic year. The investigators used a overlook instrument to determine how many of the 2809 pupils predicted by the HESI Exit Exam to pass the license exam had failed. The investigators conclud that the HESI Exit Exam was highly predictive of license exam succes Nibert and colleagues also ground that the HESI Exit Exam was an accurate predictor of license exam succes (9846%)10 They determined that the percentage of pupils failing the license exam more than doubled with each successively lower HESI Exit Exam score interval. They remind ofed that the HESI Exit Exam could be used as a benchmark for progression and remediation. Washington and Perkel studied the relationship of license exam succes to several demographic and academic factors.11 These investigators ground that none of the demographic (ethnicity, language, age, gender) or academic (transfer and cumulative grade point averages, repeated sciences, repeated nursing course, Arnett test) factors studied were significantly correlated to license exam score. Waterhouse and Beeman compared the effectiveness of an easily calculated rule for predicting nursing license exam succes (a modification of the Risk Appraisal Instrument) to more mixed statistical methods.12 Although they demonstrated 72% accuracy for their manner this level of accuracy was substantially les than the 76% to 92% accuracy rates reported for more statistically compound methods.