ANZCTR - Registration

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Trial registered on ANZCTR

Registration number

ACTRN12618000302257

Ethics application status

Approved

Date submitted

19/02/2018

Date registered

28/02/2018

Date last updated

23/02/2024

Date data sharing statement initially provided

23/08/2019

Date results provided

23/08/2019

Type of registration

Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs

Public title

Perceived levels of stress and anxiety and their impact on performance of physiotherapy students during clinical placements.

Scientific title

Perceived levels of stress and anxiety and their impact on performance of physiotherapy students during clinical placements.

Secondary ID [1]

None

Universal Trial Number (UTN)

Trial acronym

Linked study record

Health condition

Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:

Stress

Anxiety

Condition category

Condition code

Mental Health

Anxiety

Mental Health

Other mental health disorders

Intervention/exposure

Study type

Observational

Patient registry

False

Target follow-up duration

Target follow-up type

Description of intervention(s) / exposure

This study aims to measure and identify levels of stress and anxiety perceived by physiotherapy students during clinical placements. It aims to identify whether there are any factors that influence students’ perceived levels of stress and anxiety, whilst observing the presence of a relationship to academic outcomes or levels of personal resilience. Stress and anxiety will be measured prior to and at weekly intervals for the 5 week duration of clinical placements.

Intervention code [1]

Not applicable

Comparator / control treatment

Not applicable.

Control group

Uncontrolled

Outcomes

Primary outcome [1]

Change in levels of stress over the 5 week placement measured using a visual analogue scale where 0 = no stress and 100 = extremely severe stress.

Timepoint [1]

At weekly intervals for the 5 week duration of clinical placement with week 5 being the primary timepoint..

Primary outcome [2]

Change in levels of anxiety over the 5 week placement measured using a visual analogue scale where 0 = no anxiety and 100 = extremely severe anxiety.

Timepoint [2]

At weekly intervals for the 5 week duration of clinical placement with week 5 being the primary timepoint..

Secondary outcome [1]

Correlation between initial anxiety traits (measured using the Trait portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and mean anxiety over the 5 week placement period..

Timepoint [1]

At the completion of the 5 week placement period.

Eligibility

Key inclusion criteria

This study will recruit physiotherapy students (both undergraduate and graduate entry) from the University of South Australia who are undertaking their acute care, rehabilitation or primary and ambulatory care clinical placements at Central Adelaide Local Health Network sites during their physiotherapy studies in 2018. Participants may be recruited to the study on more than one occasion if eligibility criteria are met (as students may complete one, two or all three of these clinical placements at Central Adelaide Local Health Network sites). Therefore, any one student may be recruited on up to three occasions.

Minimum age

18 Years

Maximum age

No limit

Sex

Both males and females

Can healthy volunteers participate?

Yes

Key exclusion criteria

Unwilling to participate.

Study design

Purpose

Psychosocial

Duration

Longitudinal

Selection

Convenience sample

Timing

Prospective

Statistical methods / analysis

Data will be imported into SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA , v17.0) for analyses which will be predominantly descriptive in nature. Data will be assessed for normal distribution and parametric/non-parametric tests used accordingly. Participant ratings (Visual Analogue Scale) of perceived stress and anxiety while on clinical placement will be explored descriptively and compared across the time points. Additional analyses will be undertaken to investigate whether perceived stress and anxiety levels impacted on clinical and/or academic performance. Data from open-ended questions will be thematically analysed.

Recruitment

Recruitment status

Completed

Date of first participant enrolment

Anticipated

5/03/2018

Actual

5/03/2018

Date of last participant enrolment

Anticipated

5/11/2018

Actual

5/11/2018

Date of last data collection

Anticipated

7/12/2018

Actual

14/12/2018

Sample size

Target

150

Accrual to date

Final

159

Recruitment in Australia

Recruitment state(s)

Recruitment hospital [1]

The Royal Adelaide Hospital - Adelaide

Recruitment hospital [2]

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital - Woodville

Recruitment hospital [3]

Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre - Northfield

Recruitment postcode(s) [1]

5000 - Adelaide

Recruitment postcode(s) [2]

5011 - Woodville

Recruitment postcode(s) [3]

5085 - Northfield

Funding & Sponsors

Funding source category [1]

Hospital

Name [1]

Alison Kinsman AM Physiotherapy Research Grant, Royal Adelaide Hospital

Address [1]

Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country [1]

Australia

Primary sponsor type

Individual

Name

Deborah Gallasch

Address

8G-140
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country

Australia

Secondary sponsor category [1]

Individual

Name [1]

Amy Conlon-Leard

Address [1]

Physiotherapy Department
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
28 Woodville Road
Woodville South
Adelaide
South Australia 5011

Country [1]

Australia

Secondary sponsor category [2]

Individual

Name [2]

Kathy Stiller

Address [2]

7F-060
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country [2]

Australia

Secondary sponsor category [3]

Individual

Name [3]

Michelle Hardy

Address [3]

Physiotherapy Department
Hampstead Rehabilitation Hospital
Hampstead Road
Northfield
Adelaide
South Australia 5085

Country [3]

Australia

Other collaborator category [1]

University

Name [1]

University of South Australia

Address [1]

School of Health Sciences
University of South Australia
North Terrace
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country [1]

Australia

Ethics approval

Ethics application status

Approved

Ethics committee name [1]

Central Adelaide Local Health Network Research Ethics Committee

Ethics committee address [1]

Level 3 Roma Mitchell House
North Terrace
Adelaide
South  Australia 5000

Ethics committee country [1]

Australia

Date submitted for ethics approval [1]

02/02/2018

Approval date [1]

02/02/2018

Ethics approval number [1]

HREC/18/CALHN/74

Ethics committee name [2]

University of South Australia Human Research Ethics Committee

Ethics committee address [2]

North Terrace
Adelaide
South  Australia 5000

Ethics committee country [2]

Australia

Date submitted for ethics approval [2]

08/02/2018

Approval date [2]

14/02/2018

Ethics approval number [2]

200997

Summary

Brief summary

The main purpose of this study is to explore the levels of stress and anxiety perceived by physiotherapy students during the course of their clinical placements. Clinical placements are designed to challenge students’ learning and expose them to situations which they would not otherwise experience. The transition between university-based learning and clinical practice is challenging for many students. Developing competency in safe patient management in the clinical setting is demanding, with a noticeable gap between what is learnt in the classroom and implementing this in a clinical setting. Supervised clinical placements provide experiential learning where students gain concrete experience, and have opportunities for observation and reflection, formation of abstract concepts and practise of new skills. In our anecdotal experience, a high number of physiotherapy students report that clinical placements are a source of stress and anxiety. It is the amount of stress and an individual student’s capacity to manage it that can result in stress being either beneficial or detrimental to learning. It is currently unknown whether the perceived levels of stress and anxiety that physiotherapy students experience during clinical placement impacts on their learning, either positively or negatively, and what factors may contribute to this.
The primary aim of this study is to measure the levels of stress and anxiety perceived by physiotherapy students at a number of time points across their clinical placements (acute care, rehabilitation and primary and ambulatory care) to determine if the students’ perceived levels of stress and anxiety change over the clinical placement.
Secondary aims include whether any patterns emerge in the levels of stress and anxiety perceived by students and whether baseline measures of anxiety traits influence anxiety levels during clinical placements.
It is anticipated that the study will provide insight into the levels of stress and anxiety perceived by physiotherapy students during their clinical placements. It is possible that patterns of perceived stress and anxiety may emerge during particular time points in the clinical placement which could be used to help inform future research and to guide time specific changes to the clinical placement framework (e.g. strategies for stress reduction, education around resilience) which in turn may enhance clinical placement experiences and optimise student learning

Trial website

Trial related presentations / publications

Public notes

Contacts

Principal investigator

Name

Ms Deborah Gallasch

Address

8G-140
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 70742850

Fax

Deborah.Gallasch@sa.gov.au

Contact person for public queries

Name

Deborah Gallasch

Address

8G-140
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 70742850

Fax

Deborah.Gallasch@sa.gov.au

Contact person for scientific queries

Name

Kathy Stiller

Address

7F-060
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road
Adelaide
South Australia 5000

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 870742639

Fax

Kathy.Stiller@sa.gov.au

Data sharing statement

Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?

No/undecided IPD sharing reason/comment

What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided

Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually

No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically

No additional documents have been identified.

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