The perceptions of clinical physiotherapists of their role in supervising undergraduate students in selected tertiary hospitals in Tanzania

Abstract

Clinical exposure is a major training component that professional training institutions use to inculcate among undergraduate physiotherapy students clinical knowledge and skills from a real world context. Good perceptions of clinical supervisors of their roles are an important element in enabling effective clinical supervision. However, there is poor engagement of supervisors in students‘ supervision resulting from different perceptions of the supervisors of their respective roles in this endeavour. Evidence shows that clinical supervisors perceive their responsibilities both positively and negatively, in addition to the supervision benefits and counterbalanced by the challenges that impact on their ability to supervise students effectively. Effective and ineffective engagement of clinical supervisors in students‘ supervision necessitated this study to explore the perceptions of clinical physiotherapy supervisors of their supervisory roles in this endeavour. The results of this study may assist with making recommendations to address clinical supervision benefits and challenges. The aim of the study is to explore clinical physiotherapists‘ perceptions of their supervisory roles during undergraduate clinical supervision.