Anne O'Connor
Anne O'Connor
PhD. MSc.(Sports Injury) BSc.(Physio). PGDip (Clin Teach) Dip (Technology Enhanced Learning)
About
23
Publications
7,112
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
173
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Physiotherapist and Researcher in Physiotherapy and Health Professional Education. Research interests include work-based assessment, feedback literacy, CPD, sustainability & innovation in practice education delivery, student resilience and coping strategies.
Additional affiliations
January 2006 - present
Publications
Publications (23)
Graduate entry healthcare students experience many challenges during their academic journey. The impact of these challenges needs to be considered to support students through their training and education. In this study, we examined the impact of experiencing these role conflicts e.g. family and caring responsibilities, activities with family/friend...
Background
Feedback, if effectively provided by the teacher and utilised by the learner, enables improvement in academic performance. It is clear from current literature that the provision of feedback by teachers is not sufficient on its own to guarantee improvements as early university entrants may not be sufficiently equipped to effectively engag...
Performance‐based assessment evaluates a health professional student's performance as they integrate their knowledge and skills into clinical practice. Performance‐based assessment grades, however, are reported to be highly variable due to the complexity of decision‐making in the clinical environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impac...
BACKGROUND: Limited evidence exists regarding practice educators’ and practice tutors’ experience of, and training in, student supervision in the physiotherapy workplace. This knowledge would inform universities of their learning needs and help to enhance the practice-based experience for physiotherapy students. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was...
Background/Aims
Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a common condition following stroke, with adverse consequences including aspiration pneumonia. Internationally, aspiration risk is typically managed using thickened liquids, an intervention with limited empirical support and associated treatment adherence issues. This study explores speech and language the...
Objectives:
Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are used in healthcare to measure the relative importance that stakeholders give to different features (or attributes) of medical treatments or services. They may also help to address research questions in health professional education. Several challenges exist regarding the performance-based assessme...
Background and aims:
Clinician engagement in research has the potential to improve healthcare processes and facilitate evidence-based practice. As a means to encourage clinician research engagement and links between speech-language pathology (SLP) clinicians in practice and researchers in higher education institutions, a national SLP clinician-aca...
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate a novel internship model that incorporates a practice tutor in physiotherapy clinical education during an acute care cardiorespiratory internship at a large acute tertiary care teaching hospital in Canada.
Method:
A prospective evaluation of this model was conducted by means of a mix...
Background
Service provision and the education of health professionals has diversified with the shift in health care focus to primary care. Current evidence, particularly in physiotherapy education, has identified shortfalls in practical experience and education provided in health promotion. To address this, practice placements in non‐traditional s...
Objectives:
Physiotherapy lacks the significant body of evidence that underpins performance-based assessments in disciplines such as medicine and nursing. In particular, very few studies have examined stakeholder perspectives of the process. This study set out to explore the perceptions of clinicians who undertake student assessment in the workpla...
Background: Performance-based assessment (PBA) is an integral component of health professional education as it determines students’ readiness for independent practice. Stakeholder input can provide valuable insight regarding its challenges, facilitators, and impact on student learning, which may further its evolution. Currently, evidence of stakeho...
Background
Clinical performance assessment tools (CPATs) used in physiotherapy practice education need to be psychometrically sound and appropriate for use in all clinical settings in order to provide an accurate reflection of a student's readiness for clinical practice. Current evidence to support the use of existing assessment tools is inconsiste...
A recent systematic review suggests that more comparative research is required on the effectiveness of clinical placement models. This study explored perspectives of clinical educators and students who had participated in both the 1:1 (one student supervised by one clinical educator) and 2:1 (two students supervised by one clinical educator) models...
Background: Hamstring injuries are common in Gaelic football and have been associated with reduced flexibility in other sports. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between lower-limb-flexibility and previous hamstring injury in male Gaelic footballers as this has not been previously investigated. Methods: Eighteen male club-level...
Hamstring injuries are common in many sports involving high-load eccentric hamstring activation, including Gaelic football. Eccentric hamstring peak torque (PT) and hamstring angle to peak torque (AngPT) have not been examined in previously injured Gaelic footballers. This study aimed to determine whether significant hamstring and quadriceps PT def...
A sub-group of Chartered Physiotherapists in Education (CPE) was formed in 2004 to consider the adoption of a common assessment form (CAF) for assessing practice education placements for students studying physiotherapy in the Republic of Ireland. Following agreement from the four heads of departments, the needs of users (academic staff, practice tu...
Projects
Project (1)
Clinical performance assessment is a complex process which plays a significant role in determining a students’ readiness for practice. Challenges include reliability and validity issues with assessment tools, anxiety and reluctance to fail students demonstrating unsafe or incompetent practice and conflicting roles when acting as practice educator and assessor. Lack of transparency and robustness of these processes can ultimately impact on service provision and patient safety. It is imperative therefore, that rigorous assessment methods and optimum training of practice educators are demonstrated. Student failure has serious implications on subsequent career choice, notwithstanding the stress endured by practice educators engaged in decision-making processes involving underperforming students. Physiotherapy literature exploring this subject is limited despite much anecdotal evidence of these challenges. The overall aim of this research is to provide an evidence base to support the clinical performance assessment process of physiotherapy students in Ireland, using a stakeholder-centred approach to identify areas for its enhancement, thus optimising patient safety and health service delivery.
