Recognition of Barriers in Physiotherapy Clinical Education From Students’ Perspectives: A Content Analysis

Objectives: Clinical education in medical sciences is essential, because of its important role in the education of specialist skills. Physiotherapy specialization is among the main branches of medical sciences, which requires high academic and professional skills. One of the most important and effective methods to assess the quality of clinical education in physiotherapy is to review it from a student’s perspective. Therefore, this study attempted to recognize the barriers of clinical education in physiotherapy students from their own perspective.  Methods: This qualitative study used content analysis method. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and the samples were selected by purposeful sampling method. We have considered maximum variation (gender, semester, educational level, place of residence) of persons in the sample selection. The data collection continued until saturation was reached. Participants included 13 physiotherapy undergraduate students who had completed at least 6 clinical education units. Results: We extracted 182 original codes from interviews analysis. By eliminating and matching the data, we finally developed 4 categories, as follows: 1. Personal and professional characteristics of clinical educators; 2. Personal characteristics of students; 3. Inadequate education system; 4. The inappropriate clinical education environment. Discussion: Clinical incompetency, inadequate clinical skills, and failure to observe professional ethics are the most frequent problems of clinical supervisors. Moreover, student’s irresponsibility, inadequate participation, the lack of self-esteem in some students, and inappropriate planning and the implementation of clinical education of PT department and inappropriate interpersonal communication and facilities in clinical settings, can be considered as barriers for clinical education. Considering the obstacles and attempts to resolve them, reviewing the clinical education process can improve its quality. Reviewing the clinical education process seems to help recognize its barriers and attempt to resolving them. It seems to improve the quality of clinical education.