Professional quality of life and organizational support: a survey of physical therapists with experience as clinical instructors
Main Article Content
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the professional quality of life (ProQoL) of physical therapists (PTs) with experience as a clinical instructor and identify factors associated with compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design and survey methodology. Participants were clinician PTs who have been clinical instructors, and completed an online survey that included the ProQoL scale, the eight-item Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, and demographics.
Results: Of the 259 participants who completed the survey, the majority experienced average to high levels of compassion satisfaction and low levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Chi-square tests of independence indicated high ratings of compassion satisfaction were associated with the uppermost years licensed as a PT, years of clinical teaching experience, and age. Participants aged 26–35 or with less than 5 years of clinical instruction experience correlated with low ratings of compassion satisfaction. Participants with more than 25 years of experience as PTs correlated with low ratings of burnout. High levels of compassion satisfaction were associated with high levels of perceived organizational support.
Conclusion: Findings may assist clinical sites and site coordinators of clinical education in selecting and training clinical instructors.
References
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23. Hellman CM, Fuqua DR, Worley J. A reliability generalization study on the survey of perceived organizational support. The effects of mean age and number of items on score reliability. Educ Psychol Manage (2006) 66(4): 631–42. doi: 10.1177/0013164406288158
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25. Geoffrion S, Lamothe J, Morizot J, et al. Construct validity of the Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) scale in a sample of child protection workers. J Trauma Stress (2019) 32: 566–76. doi: 10.1002/jts.22410
26. Pustułka-Piwnik U, Ryn ZJ, Krzywoszański Ł, et al. Burnout syndrome in physical therapists – demographic and organizational factors. Med Pr (2014) 65(4): 453–62. doi: 10.13075/mp.5893.00038
27. Paiva-Sallsbury ML, Schwanz KA. Building compassion fatigue resilience: awareness, prevention, and intervention for pre-professionals and current practitioners. J Health Serv Psychol (2022) 48: 39–46. doi: 10.1007/s42843-022-00054-9
28. Walden M, Adams G, Annesley-Dewinter E, et al. The emotional cost of caring for others. J Nurs Adm (2018) 48(11): 542–52. doi: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000678
29. Patel RM, Bartholomew J. Impact of job resources and job demands on burnout among physical therapy providers. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2021) 18(23): 12521. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182312521
2. Bowens AN, Amamoo MA, Blake DD, et al. Assessment of professional quality of life in the Alabama physical therapy workforce. Phys Ther (2021) 101(7): 1–11. doi: 10.1093/ptj/pzab089
3. Chen CC. Professional quality of life among occupational therapy practitioners: an exploratory study of compassion fatigue. Occup Ther Ment Health (2020) 36(2): 162–75. doi: 10.1080/0164212x.2020.1725713
4. Klappa SG, Howayek R, Reed K, et al. Compassion fatigue among new graduate physical therapists. Glob J Med Phys Health Educ (2015) 3(4): 100–11.
5. Cantu R, Carter L, Elkins J. Burnout and intent-to-leave in physical therapists: a preliminary analysis of factors under organizational control. Physiother Theory Pract (2022) 38(13): 2988–97. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2021.1967540
6. Pniak B, Leszczak J, Adamczyk M, et al. Occupational burnout among active physiotherapists working in clinical hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in south-eastern Poland. Work (2021) 68(2): 285–95. doi: 10.3233/WOR-203375
7. Rathert C, Ishqaidef G, Porter TH. Caring work environments and clinician emotional exhaustion: empirical test of an exploratory model. Health Care Manage Rev (2022) 47(1): 58–65. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000294
8. Ruiz-Fernandez MD, Perez-Garcia E, Ortega-Galan AM. Quality of life in nursing professionals: burnout, fatigue, and compassion satisfaction. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2020) 17(4): 1–12. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041253
9. Kellish A, Gotthold S, Tiziani M, et al. Moral injury signified by levels of moral distress and burnout in health science clinical educators. J Allied Health (2021) 50(3): 190–7.
10. Burri SD, Smyrk KM, Melegy MS, et al. Risk factors associated with physical therapist burnout: a systematic review. Physiotherapy (2022) 116: 9–24. doi: 10.1016/j.physio.2022.01.005
11. Atay N, Sahin G, Buzlu S. The relationship between psychological resilience and professional quality of life in nurses. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv (2021) 59(6): 31–6. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20210218-01
12. Zhang YY, Han WL, Qin W, et al. Extent of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing: a meta-analysis. J Nurs Manage (2018) 26(7): 810–19. doi: 10.1111/jonm.12589
13. Coleman-Ferreira K, Tovin M, Rone-Adams S, et al. Achieving clinical instructor competence: a phenomenological study of clinical instructors’ perspectives. J Phys Ther Educ (2019) 33(3): 224–35. doi: 10.1097/jte.0000000000000106
14. Davies R, Hanna E, Cott C. ‘They put you on your toes’: physical therapists’ perceived benefits from and barriers to supervising students in the clinical setting. Physiother Can (2011) 63(2): 224–33. doi: 10.3138/ptc.2010-07
15. Commision on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. 2022 Physical therapist education programs fact sheet. 2022. Available from: https://www.capteonline.org/globalassets/capte-docs/aggregate-data/2022-pt-aggregate-data.pdf [cited 14 August 2023].
16. McCallum CA, Mosher PD, Jacobson PJ, et al. Quality in physical therapist clinical education: a systematic review. Phys Ther (2013) 93(10): 1298–311. doi: 10.2522/ptj.20120410
17. Sevenhuysen S, Haines T, Hons B. The slave of duty: why clinical educators across the continuum of care provide clinical education in physiotherapy. Hong Kong Physiother J (2011) 29(2): 64–70. doi: 10.1016/j.hkpj.2011.06.002
18. Greenfield BH, Bridges PH, Phillips TA, et al. Exploring the experiences of novice clinical instructors in physical therapy clinical education: a phenomenological study. Physiotherapy (2014) 100: 349–55. doi: 10.1016/j.physio.2013.10.005
19. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, et al. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods (2007) 39: 175–91. doi: 10.3758/BF03193146
20. Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. 2nd ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Hillsdale, NJ, 1988.
21. Ravid R. Practical statistics for educators. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield; Lanham, MD, 2015.
22. Eisenberger R, Huntington R, Hutchison S, et al. Perceived organizational support. J Appl Psychol (1986) 71: 500–7. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500
23. Hellman CM, Fuqua DR, Worley J. A reliability generalization study on the survey of perceived organizational support. The effects of mean age and number of items on score reliability. Educ Psychol Manage (2006) 66(4): 631–42. doi: 10.1177/0013164406288158
24. Worley JA, Fuqua DR, Hellman CM. The survey of perceived organizational support: which measure should we use? SA J Indust Psychol (2009) 35(1): 112–16. doi: 10.4102/sajip.v35i1.754
25. Geoffrion S, Lamothe J, Morizot J, et al. Construct validity of the Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) scale in a sample of child protection workers. J Trauma Stress (2019) 32: 566–76. doi: 10.1002/jts.22410
26. Pustułka-Piwnik U, Ryn ZJ, Krzywoszański Ł, et al. Burnout syndrome in physical therapists – demographic and organizational factors. Med Pr (2014) 65(4): 453–62. doi: 10.13075/mp.5893.00038
27. Paiva-Sallsbury ML, Schwanz KA. Building compassion fatigue resilience: awareness, prevention, and intervention for pre-professionals and current practitioners. J Health Serv Psychol (2022) 48: 39–46. doi: 10.1007/s42843-022-00054-9
28. Walden M, Adams G, Annesley-Dewinter E, et al. The emotional cost of caring for others. J Nurs Adm (2018) 48(11): 542–52. doi: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000678
29. Patel RM, Bartholomew J. Impact of job resources and job demands on burnout among physical therapy providers. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2021) 18(23): 12521. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182312521
Article Details
Keywords:
physical therapist, quality of life, compassion fatigue, clinical education, clinical instructor, workplace
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Section
Original Research Articles
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How to Cite
Mierau, A. (2024). Professional quality of life and organizational support: a survey of physical therapists with experience as clinical instructors. The Journal of Clinical Education in Physical Therapy, 6. https://doi.org/10.52214/jcept.v6.10951