Clinical education-related stressors and emotional states during clinical education among physical therapy students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background While clinical education-related stressors in other healthcare professions have been reported, clinical education stressors in physical therapy students are not yet clear. Purpose This study aimed to identify clusters of stressors associated with clinical education among Japanese physical therapy students and determine the association between these clusters and emotional states. Methods Participants were physical therapy students who had completed five weeks of clinical education. In addition to demographic data, the survey included the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) and the Stress Reaction Scale (SRS-18). Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract latent variables for sub-items of the BJSQ. Spearman’s correlation coefficients between the extracted latent variables and the subscales of the SRS-18 were calculated. Results Data from 114 individuals (median age 21 years, 68 men and 46 women) were analyzed. The variables identified as clusters of stressors were: 1) “adaptation to clinical education”; 2) “task burden”; and 3) “appropriate work environment.” These three clusters of stressors were significantly but only weakly correlated with the subscales of the SRS-18 (|rs| ≤ |-.39|). Conclusion The stressors associated with physical therapy clinical education need to be understood in terms of the students’ active attitude toward clinical education, the burden of practice tasks, and the physical environment during practice.