Publication Details
Edgar, S.,
&
Connaughton, J.
(2014).
Exploring the role and skill set of physiotherapy clinical educators in work integrated learning.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 15 (1), 29-36.
Abstract
Clinical educators are under increasing pressures in the workplace to provide quality education of healthcare students within varying supervision frameworks. Along with facilitating the teaching of clinical skills, clinical educators play a support role for students and so require more than expert clinical abilities in their vital position linking institutions and the healthcare environment. Twelve physiotherapy clinical educators attended one of two focus groups exploring their opinions on the role and skill set of clinical educators in work-integrated learning (WIL).Clinical educators described their role, their skills, challenges they faced supporting the needs of students, as well as future training requirements. The focus group results highlighted the important role of soft skills in the clinical educator role. The development of this skill set is essential to ensure quality supervision through optimal interactions between clinical educators and students in WIL.
Keywords
clinical educator, co-operative learning, work-integrated learning
