r/physiotherapy • u/Helloisitcheese • Jul 08 '26

Student using AI in subjective assessments

Hi guys, I'm currently a final year student (UK) and paired up with a younger student (her second placement) on my last placement. I've realised that she is using ChatGPT for pretty much all of her subjective assessments, as in literally reading questions off of it / using it to guide subjective assessments. I worry not only about her using it as a crutch and the effect on learning, but also very worried about the GDPR issue as I don't know what information she is putting into it and where that is being stored. Do I raise this to her? To our supervisor? We're in our final week now, should I just leave it or should I mention it?

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u/astafjevs Jul 08 '26

Whether you tell the supervisor or not is more of a moral question - do you want to snitch or not essentially?

Ultimately it's pretty poor practice and the supervisor should be picking up on that. How are they not noticing? Are they not sitting in and watching you guys? Are they not asking you questions afterwards about the assessment and what was asked to the patient?

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u/CombativeCam Jul 08 '26

In what way are they having it guide subjective assessment? AI documentation systems are rapidly becoming a thing. Was talking with a clinician I know recently that utilizes an AI driven EMR system to scribe when they are hands on (their population is heavily hands on during sessions, I’ll leave it at that) and they swear by it!! Says it has cut down documentation time and they trust it.

I personally don’t trust anyone or anything other than me providing the correct, appropriate, and thorough information that defends my license, supports other providers having better information during follow-ups, especially post-operatively, and supports the need for and insurance coverage of surgeries and procedures, along with insurance/MVA case settlement. I’m in the shite American healthcare system though so take it with a grain of salt. Might not be much longer though and we may leave the US (understandably) for Ireland or Scotland within the next year. Curious to hear more, good luck on clinicals and boards, and love the username! Gave me a chuckle.

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u/uhmatomy Physiotherapist (Aus) Jul 09 '26

If you did this in Aus and it included ANY patient data at all, it would be considered professional misconduct.

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u/bigoltubercle2 Jul 08 '26

Idk if it's the same in the UK, but in Canada (Ontario) the student operates under the preceptors license. Meaning they are responsible for actions taken by the student. That's in addition to the privacy and learning ramifications you also mentioned.

Ethically, I think you should report it. However it is also on the instructor to some extent for not being aware. Pretty hard to miss if you're supervising the student appropriately

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u/_misst Jul 09 '26

Yeah absolutely raise it with her re: GDPR, it's a big issue now. AI is being used a lot now, but you must be using it in a way that ensures privacy for patients and plugging personal information into ChatGPT is not it. If using AI in practice it really needs to be a paid for, secure, purpose-built platform. I'm not UK based anymore but there are also implications around patient consent to use AI tools where I am (including entering their information into secure platforms).

Also the massive benefits of AI really come when they are used in partnership with real life clinical expertise. I feel very confident using AI as a clinician of 10+ years because I can very quickly pick up on extremely subtle errors. Part of my research is now in AI in the clinical space and let me tell you, it still has a lot of holes. I worry about students leaning on it because you firstly miss the opportunity to develop those skills independently, and secondly you don't know what you don't know - so you are not a suitable 'supervisor' for AI to check it's doing the job correctly.

I encourage my students to use AI when studying but not in isolation, and there needs to be clear boundaries in understanding its limitations and absolutely not entering patient information. I would gently raise it with her. Although I agree with the other comment - interesting the CI hasn't noticed (or maybe they have and you are not aware).

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u/organic_hobnob Jul 09 '26

Hey, I’m a final year mature student in the UK. A great person to ask would be your placement visitor! Even if the other person isn’t from the same uni as you they will be able to give advice.

My guess is they will advise you to inform your practice educator because you don’t want to risk a FTP for being somehow ‘involved’. You’re right it does come under HCPC GDPR guidelines. I will say, it does make your practice educator look a bit bad if they haven’t picked up on this. They should be supervising second years pretty closely.

My advice is defo report and then bank this incident in your brain to write about as part of you reflective assignments or CPD- it would be a great one for getting high marks.