Influence of a clinical experiential activity on student confidence in conducting effective fall-risk assessment on older adults

ABSTRACT

The ability to confidently perform fall-risk assessment on older adults is critical for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students prior to entering workforce. The complex nature of falls makes it challenging to teach it realistically in traditional classroom settings. This could lead to lack of confidence in performing effective assessments in real clinical situations. For this purpose, an evidence-based experiential fall-risk assessment activity was implemented in the curriculum. The purpose was to investigate if this activity improved students’ confidence in performing fall-risk assessment. Twenty-eight students completed this activity on thirty-three older adults from a senior living community. A 13-item questionnaire was used to investigate confidence before and after the activity. Significant improvements in students’ confidence were noted for administering client interview (p = .001, r = −0.43), 30-Second Chair Stand Test (p = .046, r = −0.34) and 10-Meter Walk Test (p = .011, r = −0.27). Additionally, students demonstrated excellent inter-rater reliability (ICC > 0.9) with the faculty experts for administering 5-Times Sit-to-Stand, 10-Meter Walk, Berg Balance Scale, 4-Stage Balance, Timed Up and Go and 30-Second Chair Stand tests, and good inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.78) for Single-Limb Stance Time test. This activity had a positive impact on DPT students’ confidence in conducting effective fall-risk assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential learning
• confidence
• fall-risk assessment
• older adults
• physical therapy program

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the logistical assistance from the staff of Friendship Health and Living Community, 327 Hershberger Rd, Roanoke, VA 24012 in organizing the experiential learning activity for our DPT students.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and our ethical obligation as researchers, we declare that we have no material or financial interests to disclose that relate to the research described in this paper. Also, we did not receive any funding to accomplish this research.