Evaluating Placement Quality in Allied Health: Rasch-Based Validation of the Clinical Placement Quality Survey - Student

The Clinical Placement Quality Survey – Student (CPQS-S) was developed to capture allied health students' perceptions of placement quality, in alignment with the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environment framework. This study aimed to validate the CPQS-S using Rasch Analysis across multiple allied health disciplines, encompassing students from Clinical Exercise Physiology, Exercise Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation Counselling, Social Work, and Speech Pathology programs. Data collected from 933 students were divided into development and validation samples. The CPQS-S was confirmed to be measuring a unidimensional construct and Rasch Analysis showed that items demonstrated strong fit statistics and separation reliability, affirming the tool’s psychometric robustness in measuring student perceptions. These findings support the CPQS-S as a reliable, data-driven instrument that consistently assesses placement experiences across diverse settings. The validated structure underscores the CPQS-S as a reliable instrument for assessing and benchmarking placement quality, providing educators with actionable data to enhance clinical learning environments. More broadly, these findings contribute to the advancement of work-integrated learning research by offering a validated tool to inform educational interventions and quality improvement initiatives in health professions education.