Frequently Asked Questions About Clinical Assignments-CI's and CCCE's

How can I learn more about clinical education and being a clinical instructor?

The APTA provides a weekend course on clinical instructor education and credentialing. For courses offered in your area, go to the APTA website, or call 703-706-8528.

How do I use the CPI?

  1. Visual Analog Scale (VAS): The CPI contains 24 performance criteria to be assessed. For each item, a VAS is presented with "novice clinical performance" on one end and "entry level performance" at the other end. "Novice clinical performance" refers to a student who provides quality care only with uncomplicated patients and with a high degree of supervision (think of a student in her/his first affiliation); "entry level performance" refers to a student who is able to use critical thinking stills to make independent decisions about patient needs and who is able to provide quality care with a variety of types of patients in different environments. This is a student who does not need supervision except when addressing new or complex problems (think of a new grad at his/her first job). Placement of a mark on the VAS line indicates the students performance relative to entry level performance. It can be expected that students early in their academic career will likely be marked closer to the "novice" end than the "entry level" end. By the end of a student's final affiliation, all marks should be at entry level. The clinical instructor (CI) is directed to the "sample behaviors" for common behaviors to be assessed for each criterion.
  2. Red flag items: Items #1-5 are considered "red flag items." If a student has difficulty with a red flag item, the CI should immediately contact the ACCE. Remediation and/or dismissal from the clinical affiliation may be warranted. Please make sure to write comments if there are any problems with a red flag item.
  3. With distinction/not observed: The "with distinction" box can be marked to indicate that the student exceeds expectations for the clinical experience. The "not observed" box indicates that the student's performance on this criterion was not observed. This box should rarely be checked.

Please refer to the "instructions" portion of the CPI (pages ii-vii) for more information on using the CPI. You may also contact your facility's CCCE or Becca Reisch (503-352-2800) with questions.

How do I know what skills I should expect the student to know?

Please refer to Chapter Three of this manual. In the clinical education summary, there is an "expectations" section for each clinical experience that outlines the level at which the student should perform.

This section is under development. Please contact Becca Reisch at 503-352-2800 for suggestions of topics to be included in this section.