2017-2018 Grant in Aid of Research
Professional Behaviors: Correlation to Clinical Performance
Daniel R. McGill
Professional behaviors are an integral part of the patient-therapist relationship in physical therapy, as well as many other health care professions. We are assessing whether the Hartman Value Profile would be a good tool to indicate whether students will have an issue with professional behaviors in the clinic. Research: Research has been conducted in various health professional programs to discuss and integrate professional behaviors into their respective programs. However, there is no research showing a standardized tool to measure professional behaviors in physical therapy programs across the United States. Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine if we can use the Hartman profile to predict whether students will have a problem with professional behaviors before going on their internships. Methodology: We will distribute the Hartman profile to a cohort of 38 physical therapy students in their final year to assess clinical behavior moving forward. The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) will keep track of students that had professional behavior issues on their terminal internships and compare their Hartman profile to students with no behavior issues. We will study the correlation between personality traits in the Hartman profile and students that have professional behavior issues in the clinical setting.