Advice-giving skills in pre-registration physiotherapy training.
Lisa Osborn-Jenkins, Elizabeth Day, Hayley Payne and 2 others
PMID 37668054WHAT IT FOUND
Physiotherapy students feel underprepared to give self-management advice, relying heavily on clinical placements rather than academic theory.
They struggle with confidence due to assessment pressure and lack of life experience, often tailoring advice to supervisors rather than patients.
Key findings
01Students reported a lack of theoretical teaching on public health advice in their academic programs, preferring to learn through clinical placements.
02The pressure of being assessed on placement reduced students' confidence and led them to tailor advice to their supervisors' expectations rather than the patient's needs.
03Students struggled to give advice on topics outside their own life experiences, such as smoking cessation or parenting, due to a lack of empathy and confidence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Single-site study at one UK university, limiting generalizability. Data collected pre-pandemic, so it may not reflect current educational formats or simulation-based learning. No claims were made about data saturation. Further demographic information was not recorded, and prior life experience was an unknown factor.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration Wessex [NIHR ARC Wessex Internship award].
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these findings as evidence that current physiotherapy curricula are failing, as this was a small, single-site qualitative study. The results describe the perceptions of 50 students and do not measure actual patient outcomes or the effectiveness of the advice given.