I am practice education lead for the BSc Physiotherapy programme at the School of Allied Health, University of Limerick. Currently I am undertaking postdoctoral research in the area of teaching and learning for health professional students funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. My research interest is in health professional education and assessment (pre-qualification) and continuing professional development of health professionals. My PhD explored work-based assessment in physiotherapy practice education. This was funded by the Health Research Board, Ireland and has led to a review of this assessment process, which is currently underway and funded by the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists.

Publications

Mori, B. Coleman, J. Knott, K. and O’Connor, A. (2019) Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Practice Tutor Internship Model during an Acute Care Clinical Internship, Physiotherapy Canada https://doi.org/10.3138/ptc-2018-0055

 

O’Connor, A., Liston, E. and O’Donnell, M. (2019) Student led community placement in physiotherapy. Clinical Teacher Epub ahead of print: https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.12988.

 

O’Connor, A., Cantillon, P., Parker, M., McCurtin, A. (2019) Juggling roles and generating solutions; practice-based educators’ perceptions of performance-based assessment of physiotherapy students. Physiotherapy. 105 (4) 446-452. DOI: 10.1016/j.physio.2018.11.008

 

O'Connor, A., Cantillon, P., McGarr, O. and McCurtin, A. (2018) 'Navigating the system; Physiotherapy student perceptions of performance-based assessment', Medical Teacher 40(9) 928-933.

 

O’Connor, A., McCurtin, A., Cantillon, P. and McGarr, O. (2018) 'Illusions of specificity in powerladen clinical performance assessment', Medical Teacher, 40 (3) 313-314.

 

O’Connor, A., McGarr, O., Cantillon, P., McCurtin, A. and Clifford, A. (2017). Clinical performance assessment tools in physiotherapy practice education: a systematic review. Physiotherapy 104(1) 46-53.