None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This trial aims to investigate the relative impact of two online professional development activities for physiotherapists on clinical practice and their patients outcomes. Physiotherapist learners will be randomised to participate in either online clinical mentoring or online pre-recorded lectures. The primary outcome evaluated will be the effect on the physiotherapist learners patients with spinal pain as measured by the 'patient specific functional scale'. Secondary outcomes will be the effect on other patient health outcomes as well as the physiotherapist learners confidence, self-reflection and satisfaction. The clinical mentoring group participants will also complete semi-structured interviews which will be thematically analysed using a phenomenological approach.
Interventions
The intervention will be online clinical mentoring, where physiotherapist learner participants will undertake six sessions of online clinical mentoring over six weeks. Four of the sessions will be group mentoring sessions, with three physiotherapist learners and clinical mentor. Two of the sessions will be individualised with one physiotherapist learner and one clinical mentor. Each session will be of one hour duration. The intervention group will also complete four hours of self-directed activi
The intervention will be online clinical mentoring, where physiotherapist learner participants will undertake six sessions of online clinical mentoring over six weeks. Four of the sessions will be group mentoring sessions, with three physiotherapist learners and clinical mentor. Two of the sessions will be individualised with one physiotherapist learner and one clinical mentor. Each session will be of one hour duration. The intervention group will also complete four hours of self-directed activities, which will consist of preparation of a case study, recording of a patient-physiotherapist encounter and completion of a study-specific, clinical reflection form. The clinical mentoring sessions will be provided by APA titled Musculoskeletal Physiotherapists with at least two years of experience in the education of physiotherapists which includes providing clinical mentoring to entry level or post-graduate physiotherapists and/or physiotherapy students. The mentors will have training on the use of online technologies, and evidence informed clinical mentoring which is based on recently published systematic reviews relevant to the professional development of physiotherapists.
Sponsors
Western Sydney University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Physiotherapist learner participants: To be eligible for this project, physiotherapist learner participants will be physiotherapists with full Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registration and working in the private practice. They will have no more than 5 years of experience working as a physiotherapist. They will have a caseload of at least 3 new patients with spinal pain per week. Participants will be planning to continue to practice as a physiotherapist with this caseload for at least 6 months following participation in the online professional development intervention of the study. Patient participants Patients of the participating physiotherapists will be recruited to evaluate outcomes. To be eligible, patients will have spine pain (+/- limb pain) in any area of the spine, which is of any duration. They will attend the physiotherapy practice to receive care from the participating physiotherapist. They will be seeing the physiotherapist learner for the first time due to this episode of spinal pain. Additional patients of the participating physiotherapists will be recruited for a patient-physiotherapist leaner encounter video recording. This is to ensure that these participants willingly provide consent to the use of the recording and collection of their demographic information. These patients will have the same inclusion criteria as those recruited for outcomes, except they will not need to be seeing the physiotherapist learner for the first time. Written consent will be obtained for participation.
Exclusion criteria
Physiotherapist learner participants: Physiotherapists learners will excluded if they have previously completed or are currently enrolled in a post-graduate musculoskeletal or sports physiotherapy program which includes mentored clinical practice hours. Physiotherapist learners will also be excluded if they have been working as physiotherapists for more than 5 years, Patient participants Patients will be excluded if they have a suspected or confirmed diagnosis which would contra-indicate physiotherapy management and require onward medical referral, as per usual physiotherapy practice. Such diagnoses are unable to be exhaustive, but include serious pathology such as spinal fractures, aortic aneurysm or cancer. Patients will also be excluded where English language proficiency or cognitive function limits ability to consent and/or complete the patient questionnaires. Patients will be excluded from evaluating outcomes if they have been seen by the physiotherapist learner for the same episode of spinal pain in the previous month.
Outcome results
None listed