The National Consortium of Clinical Educators

Physical therapy clinical education continues to move forward! In the midst of various initiatives within the clinical education arena, the National Consortium of Clinical Educators (NCCE) has formed to assist in the implementation and evaluation of clinical education. This new consortium to the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) will represent several constituents as the vision for clinical education evolves including: Directors of Clinical Education (DCEs)/Academic Coordinators of Clinical Education (ACCEs), Center Coordinators of Clinical Education (CCCEs), clinical instructors (CIs) and clinical administrators. The consortium’s current initiative is for physical therapist academic programs to partner with a local clinical faculty member or administrator who is directly involved with the institution’s clinical education program. These “institutional pairs” will collaborate on an ongoing basis to provide input to ACAPT on issues related to clinical education. Since the initiative began earlier this summer, 6 of our Ohio Kentucky Consortium of Physical Therapy Program member institutions have named a clinical partner. Throughout the country, 67 physical therapy programs have identified a clinical partner. Check out the teams at: http://acapt.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=category&id=5:national-consortium-of-clinical-educators&layout=teams. NCCE will meet at least once annually at Education Leadership Conference in the fall and when possible at CSM.

We hope to work collaboratively with our clinical partners and with other consortiums to define our vision for the future of clinical education. Help us lead the way!

According to Dr. Corrie Odom from the NCCE Nominating Committee, "Voting for NCCE officers will occur August 25-September 3, 2015. The slate of candidates and position descriptions are available on the ACAPT NCCE website referenced above. All NCCE team members will receive notice of this election, yet only the academic member of the institution’s team will receive the email notice and link to online voting. Votes are cast by one representative of the institutional pair/team. Only the ACAPT institutions that have registered an NCCE “institutional pair” will be permitted to vote."