Clinical performance assessment tools in physiotherapy practice education: a systematic review

Clinical performance assessment tools (CPATs) used in physiotherapy practice education need to be psychometrically sound and appropriate for use in all clinical settings in order to provide an accurate reflection of a student’s readiness for clinical practice. Current evidence to support the use of existing assessment tools is inconsistent.

To conduct a systematic review synthesising evidence relating to the psychometric and edumetric properties of CPATS used in physiotherapy practice education.

An electronic search of Web of Science, SCOPUS, Academic Search Complete, AMED, Biomedical Reference Collection, British Education Index, CINAHL plus, Education Full Text, ERIC, General Science Full Text, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, UK and Ireland Reference Centre databases was conducted identifying English language papers published in this subject area from 1985 to 2015.

20 papers were identified representing 14 assessment tools.

Two reviewers evaluated selected papers using a validated framework (Swing et al., 2009).

Evidence of psychometric testing was inconsistent and varied in quality. Reporting of edumetric properties was unpredictable in spite of its importance in busy clinical environments. No Class 1 recommendation was made for any of the CPATs, and no CPAT scored higher than Level C evidence.

Findings demonstrate poor reporting of psychometric and edumetric properties of CPATs reviewed. A more robust approach is required when designing CPATs. Collaborative endeavour within the physiotherapy profession and interprofessionally may be key to further developments in this area and may help strengthen the rigour of such assessment processes.