Barredo R; Kaskaskia College, Centralia, IL. RBarredo@kaskaskia.edu.

PURPOSE: The purposes of the study were to describe how full time allied health faculty members maintained their clinical competence, to determine if efforts toward continuing clinical competence were linked with academic responsibilities, and to ascertain the role of the academic on, educational programs and faculty members in ensuring continuing clinical competence. SUBJECTS: Sixteen full time faculty members and program directors from the five allied health programs at Kaskaskia College were included in the study. These included the Respiratory Therapy, Nursing, Physical Therapist Assistant, Radiology, and Dental Assistant Programs. METHODS: The study was conducted using action research. The first phase described how the faculty members, educational programs and academic institution ensured continuing clinical competence. Activities in this phase consisted of surveys of faculty and directors, and reviews of departmental and institutional records. The second phase studied perceptions of responsibility, accountability, and support among the faculty members, educational programs, and academic institution. Activities in this phase consisted of interviews with faculty members and focus groups with the program directors and administrators. ANALYSIS: An inductive analysis of responses during the interviews and focus groups was conducted using open coding. Structural examination of transcribed proceedings and institutional documents was also conducted using content analysis. RESULTS: The activities most utilized by participants in maintaining continuing clinical competence were attendance to continuing education courses, reading of professional literature, and engagement in part time clinical work. There was a disconnect between these faculty activities and their purported academic responsibilities of the participants. An analysis of perceptions revealed that the responsibility for ensuring continuing clinical competence increased from the institutional level to the level of the faculty members, whereas accountability was localized to the faculty members and the educational programs, with the academic institution limiting itself to policy making in support of continuing clinical competence efforts. CONCLUSIONS: Full time allied health faculty members at Kaskaskia College were engaged in maintaining continuing clinical competence. But there was no link between the continuing clinical competence activities and the academic responsibilities. The full time faculty members were ultimately responsible for maintaining their clinical competence. Both the full time faculty members and the allied health programs shared accountability, while the role of the academic institution was limited to policy making. FUNDING SOURCE: None.

Copyright 2004 by the American Physical Therapy Association

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