Determinants of clinical performance in a physical therapy program.
In admission decisions, allied health programs evaluate various factors that may include overall grade-point average (GPA), science GPA, GPA in the most recent 60 hours of course work, volunteer/work experience, and performance during an admission interview. Most use mathematical formulas based on these parameters, but the rationale for weighting each factor is not always clear. To determine whether pre-admission variables can differentiate between good and poor clinical performances, the authors compared pre-admission data from 118 graduates of a physical therapy (PT) baccalaureate program with their clinical performances. GPA in the PT curriculum was included to determine whether it was related to clinical performance, which was taken as the average of overall performance scores assigned to each student by his or her instructors at four clinical education sites. The students were divided into quartiles by clinical scores. One-way ANOVA was used to identify differences between quartiles for each variable (alpha level of p < 0.05). The interview score was the only pre-admission variable that differentiated between students who did and did not perform well in the clinic (p < 0.003). Those who performed better in the clinic also had higher PT GPAs (p < 0.0001). The interview format and scoring system used may easily be adapted for other programs. Recommendations are made regarding how to utilize interview scores in the admission decision.