The effect of student clinical experiences on clinician productivity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of student clinical education experiences on acute and inpatient rehabilitation clinical instructor (CI) productivity. The hypothesis was that CI/student teams would be more productive than CIs working without students. CIs (n = 5) and students (n = 6) from a master's in physical therapy program provided productivity data on their daily patient care. We examined three primary outcomes: (1) number of patients seen per day, (2) number of charges generated per day, and (3) number of evaluations performed per day. We examined clinician productivity for 4 weeks with a student and for 4 weeks without a student. The results indicated significant differences between CI/student teams compared with CI working without students for two outcomes: (1) number of patients seen per day and (2) number of charges generated per day. Presence of students did not affect significantly the number of evaluations performed. Overall the results of this study contribute to research showing that student physical therapists positively affect clinician productivity.