Enhancing Clinical Reasoning Skills in Physiotherapy through an On-line

International Discussion Forum

Andrew King, Jackie Shanley, Gavin Lewis, Partha Kommineni, Ramesh Debur, Savita Ravindra

The Partnership

Background

Development of clinical reasoning

A core skill for all health professionals

A key aspect of postgraduate professional development.

Changes as a therapist develops more expertise

Teaching of clinical reasoning can be challenging….

The Learning Tool

Collaborative project between Coventry University and MS Ramaiah, Bangalore

Developed an on-line international learning environment

Aims

Enhance students’ clinical reasoning skills

Develop intercultural communication

Activities:

Resources: literature, videos,

Discussion forum

Real-time video conference

Aims of the Research

To evaluate this new learning activity in terms of:

Developing clinical reasoning skills

Articulating clinical reasoning to other professionals

Discussing ideas with therapists from different cultural backgrounds

Methodology

Ethical approval obtained from both institutions

Survey approach

An on-line questionnaire was used to collect data

Mixture of closed and open ended questions were used in order to

gain an understanding of student perceptions

Findings

13 out of 20 students participated in the survey

Helped develop:

Clinical reasoning

Knowledge

Communication skills

Felt strongly that the experience enhanced their knowledge and confidence

“Able to express my reasoning more clearly”

“I learnt how to apply my clinical reasoning to gait

analysis”

Clinical Reasoning

“…formulating hypotheses and possible explanations – related to the cues given

by the abnormal gait pattern”

“Able to express my reasoning more clearly”

“I developed the skills of group learning, conversations and

interactions”

Communication

“It was a good exercise for

speaking in public”

Knowledge

“I learned from other

students'’ answers”

“Interacting is a source of sharing knowledge”

“..opportunity to study in depth the mechanisms of normal and pathological

gait”

International perspective

“Communicating with students in Coventry was interesting as we got

to share ideas about how it’s practised back there in the UK and

how different / similar it is in India”

“interesting to see how similar is clinical reasoning

in a different part of the world”

Conclusion

The on-line international learning environment was easy to implement

through Open Moodle

Students enjoyed the experience and felt it enhanced their learning of

clinical reasoning relating to gait analysis

The international perspective added a novel flavour which enhanced

student engagement

Any Questions?