The use of key health questions for patient initial assessment in physiotherapy clinical practice

ML Roberts Prize Winner

Abstract

Physiotherapists are well positioned to educate patients about lifestyle behaviours to prevent, manage and in some cases reverse, non-communicable diseases. The study aimed to explore physiotherapy students’ perceptions about the physiotherapists’ role in health promotion and factors influencing students to ask key health questions about physical activity, smoking and sleep health. A mixed methods design was applied in a paper-based survey involving a 10 cm visual analogue scale (VAS) and open ended questions. Participants were University of Otago final year Bachelor of Physiotherapy students (n = 74). Participants perceived the physiotherapists’ role in health promotion to be important (87.5% in VAS strength). However, participants only asked patients about their level of physical activity, smoking status and sleep health 84.8%, 44.6% and 47.8% of the time, respectively; confidence was a significant variable influencing these percentages. Two a priori themes, ‘clinical setting’ and ‘knowledge regarding key health questions’ were established, then factors influencing students in asking key health questions were explored. The major factor influencing whether participants asked key health questions was relevance to patient presentation. Participants confirmed the physiotherapists’ role in health promotion is important and results provide a benchmark for the efficacy of health promotion content in entry level physiotherapy curricula.