Doctor of Physical Therapy students’ clinical reasoning readiness and confidence treating with telehealth: a United States survey

Purpose: Telehealth has an emerging footprint on entry-level physical therapy programs. Students’ readiness for clinical reasoning with virtual versus traditional face-to-face treatment remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students’ preparedness for clinical experiences with and without telehealth. Methods: A descriptive and exploratory cross-sectional survey was employed, with a voluntary convenience sample of 211 second- and third-year university DPT students during Fall 2020 clinical experiences. Descriptive and inferential statistics evaluated differences in DPT students’ (1) Physical Therapist Self-Efficacy (PTSE) scale scores, (2) confidence with treating initial and subsequent same-patient visits, and (3) final Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) clinical reasoning and summative scores during clinical experiences with and without telehealth. Results: Telehealth availability was 40.3%, with 16.6% of DPT students reporting participation. Most students reported being comfortable (39.3%) or neutral (32.2%) using telehealth. DPT students’ confidence level using telehealth to treat was 74% on initial and 97% on subsequent same-patient visits. Mean PTSE scores were significantly lower during clinical experiences with telehealth (13.1) compared to traditional experiences (15.1) (P