The perceived barriers and facilitators in completing a Master's degree in Physiotherapy.
Nicolette Comley-White, Joanne Potterton
PMID 30135923WHAT IT FOUND
Research environment and support were named by 10 physiotherapy master's graduates as either barriers or facilitators to completion.
Those who completed within the stipulated period cited personal motivation and efficient logistics; those who took longer cited difficult data collection and poor supervisor relationships.
Key findings
01Research environment and support were the two themes, and each could be a barrier or facilitator for different participants.
02Six of ten participants took longer than n + 1, and dissertation degrees showed a trend toward longer completion.
03Students who completed within n + 1 identified facilitators more strongly than barriers, especially personal motivation and efficient logistics, while students who took longer identified barriers more strongly than facilitators, especially challenging data collection and poor supervisor relationships.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
It included only 10 recent part-time master's students at one South African university, so it may not represent full-time students, other universities, academic settings or other countries. It reports perceptions, not measured completion outcomes or tested causes, so it cannot show that these factors would shorten degree completion. Data saturation was reached with 10 interviews, but the sample was purposive and small, and the study did not quantify how common each barrier or facilitator was. The research environment was defined as the data-collection site, not the registered academic institution, so findings may not apply to university support structures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as proven causes of timely completion. The study reports perceptions from 10 part-time physiotherapy master's students at one site, and it did not test whether these factors would shorten degree completion.