Initial Reliability of the Standardized Orthopedic Assessment Tool (Soat) (Original Research) (Professional Standards‪)‬

Skills for assessing patients with musculoskeletal conditions are critical in the athletic therapy, athletic training, (l) and physical therapy professions. (2) They are also important for primary care physicians, who use these skills in 10% to 15% of all examinations. (3) Teaching assessment skills is equally important but challenging, particularly if no educational standards are associated with them. (1) Student evaluation can yield clear signs of successful learning and teaching. A procedure that athletic therapists (ATs) in Canada employ to assess orthopaedic conditions was content validated (4) and resulted in the presentation of the Standardized Orthopedic Assessment Tool (SOAT). Essentially, the SOAT was based on evaluation protocols originally described by Cyriax (5) and further defined by Magee. (6) Before the SOAT, no tool to measure orthopaedic assessment skills had been described in the literature. (4) In brief, the SOAT was content validated using a modified Ebel procedure as described by Butterwick et al. (7) This procedure consisted of experts reviewing all tasks associated with a complete orthopaedic assessment. Each task was classified by major category commonly employed in an orthopaedic assessment: history, observation, scanning examination, clearing joints above and below the lesion site, examination (active, passive, and isometric resisted testing), special testing, palpation, and conclusion (diagnosis). The SOAT consists of identical history tasks for all regions of the body; its remaining components have unique tasks that are specific to each region. Experts reviewed all tasks associated with each body part (approximately 200 to 250 per SOAT for a specific body region) 3 times with different scenarios or conditions. The target was 80% expert agreement for tasks on a 3-level importance scale (essential, important, and not as important) to accomplish content validation of the tool. The standardized tool was finalized after further discussion and electronic communication, and it met the goal of 80% expert agreement. The product was a tool that could measure the underlying construct of clinical competence in orthopaedic assessment.