Career intentions and satisfaction influences in early career Australian physiotherapists.

Background: The current workforce does not meet the demand for physiotherapy services in Australia. Future demand is predicted to expand driven primarily by the aging population. Previous research describes significant attrition and short career intentions of junior physiotherapists.

Do personal and behavioural characteristics of physiotherapy students predict performance during training and course completion?

Background: Specific personal and behavioural characteristics are required for competent health care practice. Research investigating relationships between these characteristics and course performance of health professions students is expanding, yet little research is conducted within the undergraduate physiotherapy student population. This study aimed to explore the relationships between personality, approaches to learning, and coping strategies of undergraduate physiotherapy students and their performance in academic, clinical and in-course assessment tasks and course progression.

An investigation of the predictive validity of selection tools on performance in physiotherapy training in Australia.

Objectives: Despite a large body of research on selection in medical education, very little is conducted in other health professions. This study investigated the predictive validity of multiple selection tools on academic and clinical performance outcomes of undergraduate physiotherapy students.

Design: A retrospective observational study.

Setting priorities for health education research: A mixed methods study.

Identifying priority research topics that meet the needs of multiple stakeholders should maximize research investment. To identify priorities for health education research. A three-stage sequential mixed methods study was conducted.

Using cost-analyses to inform health professions education - The economic cost of pre-clinical failure.

Background: Student failure creates additional economic costs. Knowing the cost of failure helps to frame its economic burden relative to other educational issues, providing an evidence-base to guide priority setting and allocation of resources. The Ingredients Method is a cost-analysis approach which has been previously applied to health professions education research.

Remote-online case-based learning: A comparison of remote-online and face-to-face, case-based learning - a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Case-based learning (CBL) is an educational approach where students work in small, collaborative groups to solve problems. Computer assisted learning (CAL) is the implementation of computer technology in education. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a remote-online CBL (RO-CBL) with traditional face-to-face CBL on learning the outcomes of undergraduate physiotherapy students.

The economic cost of failure in clinical education: a multi-perspective analysis.

Context: Failure by students in health professional clinical education intertwines the health and education sectors, with actions in one having potential downstream effects on the other. It is unknown what economic costs are associated with failure, how these costs are distributed, and the impacts these have on students, clinicians and workplace productivity. An understanding of cost drivers and cost boundaries will enable evidence-based targeting of strategic investments into clinical education, including where they should be made and by whom.

Implementing student self-video of performance.

Background: Resource and curriculum constraints within contemporary university programmes limit opportunities for supervision and feedback of student practice. This study investigated the technological challenges, solutions and educational rewards in implementing Web-based student self-video of performance as a method to foster the development of student self-evaluation.

Methods: Physiotherapy students (n = 60) in their final preclinical semester participated in the study.

Investigating the efficacy of practical skill teaching: a pilot-study comparing three educational methods.

Effective education of practical skills can alter clinician behaviour, positively influence patient outcomes, and reduce the risk of patient harm. This study compares the efficacy of two innovative practical skill teaching methods, against a traditional teaching method. Year three pre-clinical physiotherapy students consented to participate in a randomised controlled trial, with concealed allocation and blinded participants and outcome assessment.