The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global transition from in-person to online instruction leaving many higher education faculty with little time or training for this responsibility. Physical therapist education programs were especially impacted since a large part of the development of skills rely on face-to-face onsite practice. This phenomenological study explored the perceptions of physical therapist educators in three countries—Brazil, Cyprus, and the United States, who transitioned to an entirely virtual medium of teaching during the pandemic. Sixteen faculty participated in 1:1 semi-structured interviews. Trustworthiness of qualitative inquiry was ascertained using triangulation, thick descriptions, and peer reviews. Four major themes emerged from analysis of participants’ interview data: adapting pedagogy in real-time, expected excellence, limitations of the medium, and informing future teaching practice. All participants described teaching during the pandemic as one of the most challenging experiences of their professional careers. Despite available resources, faculty noted challenges in making authentic connections with students, adapting to technological interruptions, assessment of student understanding of content, and managing work-life balance. Despite the challenges, faculty worked collaboratively with peers to innovate new approaches of creating social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Unique opportunities arose from the pandemic to enhance future teaching practice.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a networked mentoring program aligned with the racial/cultural identity development model could mitigate social isolation and promote a sense of belonging among first-year racial and ethnic minority Doctor of Physical Therapy students. Mentoring teams consisted of a first-year minority student, a faculty mentor, and a second-year minority peer mentor. First-year mentees described feeling more connected to the institution through interactions with peer and faculty mentors in mentoring sessions and networking events. Faculty mentors demonstrated a significant increase in cross-cultural psychological capital throughout the six-month intervention period. Peer mentors articulated their professional growth through participating in the networked mentoring model, highlighting the reciprocal benefits associated with mentoring.

Minoritized health sciences students report experiencing social isolation and discrimination, and cite the lack of faculty representation as barriers to their success. While virtual mentoring can increase sense of belonging and connectedness, these effects have not been examined in minoritized health sciences students. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether virtual mentoring from faculty and peers could decrease social isolation and promote social belonging among minoritized first-year physical therapy and nursing students. Using a mixed methods explanatory sequential design, racial and ethnic minority physical therapy and nursing students (n = 8) received virtual mentoring and attended virtual networking events while students from across the health profession programs served as a comparison group (n = 16). While virtual mentoring relationships took longer to establish, there was an increase in satisfaction with mentoring for the intervention group compared with no improvement for the comparison group who received traditional academic advising. Qualitative data analysis revealed that mentors served as role models who had overcome barriers and persevered, decreasing feelings of isolation, and bolstering mentee confidence. A virtual multiple-mentor model can decrease isolation and promote social belonging for minoritized students and offer support for students even after the pandemic.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical therapy process of care, clinical practices, and the self-reported psychosocial impact of working during the 2020 pandemic on physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. Methods: An electronic survey including closed and open-ended questions was distributed to physical therapists employed in a range of health care settings across the United States. Results: Physical therapy use and process of care varied across settings. Feasibility of performing an assessment was the main driver for selection of outcome measures. Interventions were mainly geared toward improving respiratory function and deconditioning. Prone patient positioning, now commonplace, was used infrequently by therapists in acute care prior to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Similarly, outpatient and home care settings noted an increase in the use of respiratory-driven interventions such as incentive spirometry and breathing exercises. Qualitative data analysis revealed both physical barriers (personal protective equipment [PPE]) and social barriers to care. Therapists noted challenges in discharge planning and patient/family education due to the impact of social isolation. They also noted difficulty maintaining productivity standards because of additional time spent in changing PPE and following safety measures. Participants dealt with rapid changes in their role, changing productivity standards, and needing to increase their knowledge in a short amount of time. Conclusion: Physical therapy use varied widely across settings. Despite some concern for personal health, respondents felt that the COVID-19 pandemic increased a sense of togetherness among team members and promoted greater appreciation for life and work. Impact: This exploration of the process of care and current clinical practices across settings provides important knowledge about the role of physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in the care of patients with COVID-19. Gaining an understanding of the psychosocial impact of the pandemic among therapists could assist in creating solutions to better support clinicians’ well-being.

Considering the expansion of online graduate education, higher education practitioners must support student belonging and academic writing in this growing context. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to use social cognitive theory to explore how students in an online Doctor of Education program experience becoming academic writers and to examine trends in students’ belonging and writing self-efficacy. This explanatory sequential design study included quantitative data collection via an electronic survey followed by individual and focus group interviews with participants. Seventy-four students completed the survey (29% response rate) and eleven students participated in interviews. Survey results revealed that students had a moderate to high sense of belonging related to the writing process and a significant negative correlation between writing self-efficacy and belonging uncertainty. Qualitative analysis of the interviews resulted in five themes: (1) writing is experienced as a journey, (2) unclear expectations are painful, (3) English is viewed as a privilege, (4) peer support is needed, and cannot be forced, and (5) developing writers view writing as a craft and identified writing tools. This study provides supporting evidence that belonging is possible in online doctoral education. Recommendations for practice include the strategic engagement of peers and clear, timely notes from instructors.

In health professions education, the hidden curriculum is a set of implicit rules and expectations about how clinicians act and what they value. In fields that are very homogenous, such as rehabilitation professions, these expectations may have outsized impacts on students from minoritized backgrounds. This qualitative study examined the hidden curriculum in rehabilitation graduate programs—speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy—through the perspectives and experiences of 21 students from minoritized backgrounds. Semi-structured interviews explored their experiences with their programs’ hidden curricula. These revealed expectations about ways of being, interacting, and relating. Three overarching themes emerged, each reflecting tensions between conflicting values: (i) blend in but stand out; (ii) success lies in individualism, while de-prioritizing the individual; and (iii) fix the field, using your identities as a tool. When the expectations aligned with students’ expectations for themselves, meeting them was a source of pride. However, when the social expectations clashed with their own culture, dis/ability, gender, or neurotype, these tensions became an additional cognitive burden, and they rarely received mentorship for navigating it. Health professions programs might benefit from fostering students’ critical reflection on their hidden curricula and their fields’ cultural norms to foster greater belonging, agency, and identity retention.