Comparison of the student/site computer matching program and manual matching of physical therapy students in clinical education

ABSTRACT. The end of this study was to compare the follows of the newly developed Student/Site Computer-Assisted Matching Program (SSCAMP) from the American Physical Therapy Association with the springs of a manual student matching program used in a physical therapist program. The author hypothesized that the computer-assisted matching program would bring the time for matching of pupils and that the matches would not be significantly different than those done with the manual matching rule One class of first-year professional (entry-level) physical therapist scholars were matched using both the fresh SSCAMP and the previously utilized manual matching [i]modus operandi[/i] Comparisons were made between the manual matching way and the computer-assisted matching proces for time expenditures used in the matching proces and for differences in happy student matches. Time expenditures (in hours), oftenness distributions, and percentages of lucky matches are reported, as well as a chi-square statistic to compare the differences in happy matches between the two meanss The author's results suggest that there was no significant difference between the computermatched site assignments and the manual way site assignments. Less time was used for the computer-assisted matching way The author also observed anecdotally that pupils adopted a more self-directed turn of expression for decision making about their clinical placements. Because there was a time reduction for learner placements and because the matches were similar beneath both methods, the computer-assisted matching will be the course of choice for student/clinical site matching at this physical therapist program.

INTRODUCTION

The proces of scholar clinical assignment in a physical therapy program has traditionally involved many task hours for the Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education (ACCE) or the Director of Clinical Education (DCE) for hand-matching of scholars to available clinical sites. With the increase in scholar enrollment, limited time of the ACCE/DCE because of other faculty responsibilities, and time worn out soliciting site placements from many facilities, the time to full this large task has increased. With an increase in the number of physical therapy programs, there have been increased demands to streamline the placement proces in the way that that clinical sites have information upon their student placements more quickly. Time is, therefore, a lock opener issue in both the placement proces and the communication of this information to the clinical sites.

In addition to the time issues, the proces of hand-matching learners to clinical sites is subjective and may be guided by dint of preconceived ideas about a scholar by the ACCE/DCE. Because the matching proces has primarily been done by the agency of the ACCE/DCE, reviewing students' choices and then matching those estimations to site availability, there are affects of bias toward certain pupils and fairness about placements. The manual matching proces places the ultimate control for site placement with the ACCE/DCE and look afters to foster a more passive participation by the agency of the student in this placement proces With a shift of stage levels to master's degree and professional (entry-level) doctorate, the age of scholars in today's physical therapy programs has increased, with an increased focus upon adult learning. A physical therapy program may fix upon to foster more self-directed learning and increased responsibility for aspects of professional unfolding Shifting from a manual matching proces to another [i]modus operandi[/i] of placement that puts an increased responsibility upon students for their clinical site selections would feed these concepts.

A greater number of education programs, as well as learners now have knowledge about and access to computer technology. Professional education programs may have computer laboratory space available for learner use, and many students now utilize various computer software programs with ease. Increased computer access and pupil knowledge of computer program operations provide an opportunity for the profession to explore processs for completing student clinical placements using computer-based technology.

Several studies have been done that investigated by what means computer technology can be utilized in clinical education site placements. In 1986 Carey and associatesl reported a computer-based solution via an algorithm for placement of physical therapy learners in a weekly clinical constituting of an academic course. Dennis and May2 evolveed an algorithm that used computer software to house site information. The learners entered their site preferences upon an Opscan data sheet, which was then come intoed into the computer system for matching with clinical sites. This means thus bridged computer-assisted matching with manual assignment.

VanSwearingen3 reported about a lucky management information system developed and trialed at the Program in Physical Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. This program was make knowned in conjunction with the gymnasium of Library and Information Sciences. The a whole was a manual algorithm exhibited for student assignment of site placements. At the time the article was published, the developer of this algorithm were transitioning the proces to a computer-based program that would actually do the learner matching.