Minimum Standards for Physiotherapy Practice in Critical Care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Minimum standards of clinical practice for physiotherapists working in critical care settings in UK: A Qualitative Study
IRAS ID
259735
Contact name
Paul Twose
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff Unviersity
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Nearly all physiotherapists are required to work in critical care (also known as the intensive care unit) after graduating from university. This may be part of their daily job or via a rota for working in critical care during the evenings and weekends, when they will be working without the usual support from specialist physiotherapy colleagues. In order to provide high quality care for patients in this area, we need to understand the characteristics of physiotherapists working in critical care. Recent work has focused on understanding the essential skills and knowledge that are required to work effectively and safely in this clinical area. However, it is not yet known what other skills physiotherapists require to ensure high quality patient care e.g. team working and effective communication skills.
The aim of this study is to gather information from expert physiotherapists working in critical care about their views of skills, that are not knowledge or skill based, that are necessary for working independently in this clinical area. We will add this knowledge to that already known to create a complete picture of the skills necessary for physiotherapists working independently in critical care.
We will gather the information by asking expert physiotherapists to join a small group to discuss their views on the topic. There will be five such groups with four/five physiotherapists in each group. We will audio record the discussions and transcribe the recordings into words; these will be analysed to identify views consistent across the groups.
It is hoped that the results of this study will help to design training programmes both during university training and afterwards to improve the quality of care provided to patients admitted to critical care. The findings will be published in relevant medical journals and at appropriate conferences.
REC name
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REC reference
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