APTA's Physical Therapist Assistant Clinical Performance Instrument (PTA CPI), voluntary standardized valid instruments that assess student performance during clinical education experiences, were initially developed and field tested during a three-year period and published for use with physical therapist assistant students in 1999. With ongoing use during a 10-year period, changes in physical therapy practice, and entry-level education, it was necessary to undergo revision of both instruments to more accurately reflect expectations of graduates from physical therapist and physical therapist assistant programs. The Physical Therapist Assistant CPI (PTA CPI) was revised, field tested, and approved by APTA's Board of Directors in April 2008. The PTA CPI: Version 2008 transitioned to a Web-based system in July 2010 that allowed for easy access by all users, ability to view and compare completed midterm and final reports online by users, access to a pdf version of the PTA CPI, easy data retrieval, and with enhanced features that permit information communication through smart e-mail and the design of the system.
Getting PTA CPI Web
Academic Programs
PTA education programs interested in using or learning more about the PTA CPI Web should contact Liaison International by completing the online registration.
Clinical Educators and Students
Clinical educators and students must first take the appropriate, free CPI training course (LMS-521: 2013 PT CPI or LMS-120: 2012 PTA CPI) on the APTA Learning Center before they can edit the CPI Web. APTA membership is not required for the course or CPI access.
Once you successfully pass the CPI training course in APTA's Learning Center, you will login to CPI Web (which differs from the APTA Learning Center). Your username to login to CPI Web will be the valid email address that was provided by the academic PTA program to create your account. Please contact the academic program with whom you are affiliated in order to obtain login instructions for CPI Web. The email address/password credentials that you used to log into the APTA Learning Center will not be the same as those needed to login to CPI Web.
The first time you login into the CPI Web and update your 'My Info' profile, you will be redirected to the training verification steps. The APTA Learning Center will notify CPI Web that you successfully completed the training at this point.
Fees
The CPI annual fee to academic programs includes access to this system by ACCE/DCE, program administrator, students, clinical instructors, and center coordinators of clinical education. Learn more about the pricing for the Suite of Assessments (.pdf) (CPI, CSIF Web, Site Assign) available through Liaison International.
The CPI online training course is required of all users to access the PTA CPI Web to ensure consistency in training and use of a standardized instrument.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs: PT CPI Online Training and PT CPI Web Access (.pdf)
FAQs: Programs about CPI and Copyright (.pdf)