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Chia RX, Gomersall SR, Fooken J, et al. Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient-reported outcomes with supervised student care. Physiother Res Int. 2021;27(1):e1929doi: 10.1002/pri.1929.
Chia, R. X., Gomersall, S. R., Fooken, J., Birch, S., Dinsdale, A., Dunwoodie, R., & Forbes, R. (2022). Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient-reported outcomes with supervised student care. Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy, 27(1), e1929. https://doi.org/10.1002/pri.1929
Chia, Ruo Xin, et al. "Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient-reported outcomes with supervised student care." Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy vol. 27,1 (2022): e1929. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pri.1929
Chia RX, Gomersall SR, Fooken J, Birch S, Dinsdale A, Dunwoodie R, Forbes R. Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient-reported outcomes with supervised student care. Physiother Res Int. 2022 Jan;27(1):e1929. doi: 10.1002/pri.1929. Epub 2021 Oct 31. PMID: 34719081.
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Physiother Res Int. 2022 Jan;27(1):e1929. doi: 10.1002/pri.1929. Epub 2021 Oct 31.

Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient-reported outcomes with supervised student care.

Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy

Ruo Xin Chia, Sjaan R Gomersall, Jonas Fooken, Stephen Birch, Alana Dinsdale, Ruth Dunwoodie, Roma Forbes

Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
  2. Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 34719081 DOI: 10.1002/pri.1929

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The sustainability of physiotherapy clinical placements is an ongoing challenge, yet there is potential to increase placement capacity within the private practice sector. Barriers to hosting students, including perceived impacts on patient care, reportedly limit the uptake of hosting students within this setting. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of physiotherapy student involvement on patient-reported Global Rating of Change (GRoC) in Australian physiotherapy private practice care.

METHODS: A cross-sectional, patient survey study was conducted in three private physiotherapy practices over two 5-week periods. At their completion of care, participants completed the survey seeking demographic information, GRoC and aspects of care including number of consultations involving students, proportion of physiotherapy time involving students and frequency of student involvement in treatment delivery. After accounting for clinic-level differences, ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the impact of supervised student care on GRoC.

RESULTS: 119 participants across three practices completed the survey. There were no significant associations between patient-reported GRoC and: (1) student involvement in patient care; (2) number of consultations involving students; (3) proportion of physiotherapy time involving students; or (4) frequency of student involvement in treatment delivery (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Supervised student care in private physiotherapy practice does not appear to have a detrimental impact on patient-reported outcomes. These findings may address concerns relating to student involvement in patient care within this setting. Future research should address economic and service delivery impacts of supervised student care on private practices.

© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords: health occupations; patient outcome assessment; patient reported outcome measures; private practice; students

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