Search

Nye M, Shamus E, Rone S. Program in Physical Therapy, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, [...], PURPOSE: A review of the literature shows that a relationship exists between low back pain and abdominal muscle weakness and endurance. This is a relevant component to return to functional activities. Based on this information, it appears important for physical therapists to assess the strength and/or endurance of the abdominal muscles and their contribution to lumbar spine stabilization in patients with low back pain. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not physical therapists are performing abdominal assessments during evaluations when the patient's chief complaint is low back pain. SUBJECTS: Twenty physical therapists (and their patients) practicing in outpatient clinics participated in the observation portion of the study. METHOD: A single blinded design was used during the observations of 20 initial low back evaluations. The researchers observed if abdominal assessments were performed during the initial evaluation. If the abdominal muscles were not assessed during the evaluation, the therapist was given a questionnaire and asked to state why they elected not to assess the abdominals. Next, a retrospective review of 50 charts was performed to determine if there was documentation of abdominal assessments at any time during the course of treatment for patients with the primary complaint of low back pain. RESULTS: Of the 20 evaluations that were observed, 15% evaluated the strength or endurance of the abdominal muscles. Of the 85% that did not, the two most common reasons given for why the abdominal muscles were not assessed were: (1) the patient was in too much pain and (2) they did not feel that abdominal strength or endurance was a big focus of their initial evaluation. Other reasons included the following: they did not have enough time during the evaluation, they saw the patient's strength as they moved, they forgot, or the patient said that they had weak abdominals, so there was no need to test the strength or endurance. The retrospective chart review portion showed that 30% of the charts that were reviewed did have documentation of abdominal assessments at some point between the initial evaluation and discharge. However, 70% of the physical therapists did not address abdominal assessments according to their documentation. CONCLUSION: Studies have examined the contribution the abdominals have on lumbar spine stabilization. It is important for clinicians to objectively assess this contribution. This study has shown that therapists may not be objectively assessing the abdominal contribution to lumbar spine stabilization.

McClure SM, Kettenbach V, Stangl LG, Sargeant D, Niederhausen K, Edwards P, Lucas C. Department of Physical Therapy, Saint Louis University, St Louis, MO, [...], PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the educational needs and qualifications of the center coordinator of clinical education (CCCE); and (2) to measure the CCCE's perceptions of the level of support needed from academic institutions. SUBJECTS: 169 CCCEs serving facilities that affiliate with a midwestern university; 94% were physical therapists, 4.8% were other health care professionals, and 1.2% were physical therapist assistants. METHODS AND MATERIALS: An initial mailing of 250 surveys and two follow up mailings produced a 68% response rate. Academic Coordinators of Clinical Education (ACCEs) and academic faculty members developed the survey. Former CCCEs participated in a focus group to refine the questions. Subjects were asked questions regarding their duties as CCCE and attitudes towards their position. Mailings of the survey occurred in 1999. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics were generated for each question using SPSS. RESULTS: Educational Needs of the CCCE: 66% of the respondents volunteered for the job. 76% accepted the job because they were interested in working in education and saw the CCCE position as a step towards fulfilling that interest. Almost all of the respondents reported being aware of most of the CCCE's job duties when they accepted the position, but 78% reported that there was no time set aside for them to become acclimated to the position. 71% indicated that training in the role of the CCCE and time for review of policies regarding clinical education would have been helpful when starting the position. 58% expressed a need for continued CCCE training. Support Needed from Academic Institutions: Frequently cited elements of support from academic programs were accessibility of the ACCE (99%), timely correspondence (100%), a written list of coursework and timely updates (89%), support for placement and student evaluation decisions (100%), and continuing education offered at a reduced price (67%). CONCLUSIONS: CCCEs in this sample accepted and continue in their positions in fulfillment of an interest in education. They perceive a need for training in order to first acclimate and then improve their performance as clinical coordinators. Support from academic institutions is a key element of the CCCE's successful functioning. Important aspects of that support are quality of communication with the academic program, support for the CCCE's decision making regarding students, and continuing education.

Perry WP. Andrews University, Berrien Springs, [...], PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study was to determine the importance of selected roles and responsibilities a physical therapy department chair might perform as perceived by physical therapy unit administrators and teaching faculty in accredited, entry-level physical therapy programs. SUBJECTS: The population consisted of physical therapy unit administrators and teaching faculty who work at least half time in CAPTE-accredited physical therapy education programs offering entry-level education for physical therapists in the United States. There were 96 physical therapy unit administrators and 538 teaching faculty who met the specific inclusion criteria, creating a total sample size of 634. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A quantitative survey instrument was utilized to measure the perceptions and priorities of the roles of the physical therapy department chair. Within the survey the respondents rated the importance of 45 roles/responsibilities of the department chair from not important to essential. They further selected the five most and least important of these roles. ANALYSES: Predominant characteristics of the physical therapy unit administrators and teaching faculty were analyzed with descriptive statistics. A list of the most and least important roles and responsibilities of the physical therapy department chair was identified. Significant differences between the perceptions of physical therapy unit administrators and teaching faculty on the various roles and responsibilities of the department chair were analyzed by three- and two-way analysis of variance, with appropriate post hoc tests. RESULTS: Unit administrators and teaching faculty agree on the most and least important roles and responsibilities of a department chair. The most important roles were to act as faculty advocate to higher administration, prepare the physical therapy department budget, evaluate faculty performance to determine tenure and promotions, monitor accreditation standards, motivate faculty, evaluate faculty performance to determine raises, encourage faculty research and publications, and exhibit informal faculty, leadership. The least important roles were to help students register, schedule classes, maintain accurate student records, select new physical therapy students, assign graduate assistants, evaluate student research, manage clerical staff, and practice clinical physical therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Both physical therapy unit administrators and teaching faculty agree on which roles and responsibilities of the department chair are the most and least important. Roles tended to be more administration and faculty-centered at the top and student-centered at the bottom.

Although physical therapists now often appear to be discussing the necessity of performing outcomes research for the documentation of the effectiveness of commonly used interventions, the discussion has been ongoing [...], Background and Purpose. The physical therapy profession, through its published educational accreditation standards and its normative model of professional education, has addressed the importance of educating physical therapist students in the basic principles and application of research. The purpose of this study was to conduct a longitudinal study of students relative to (1) their perception of knowledge with respect to research, (2) their perception of what source should be used (evidence-based practice or traditional protocols) for clinical decision making, and (3) their perception of what should be used in a clinical setting for patient management. Subjects. Thirty-six students during the final year of their professional program from a sample of 115 physical therapist students who requested 2 consecutive physical therapist classes completed the entire sequence of pretest and posttest survey administrations. Seventy-nine students did not complete the entire sequence. Methods. A 10-item 5-point Likert-type questionnaire was designed by the authors to probe the students' attitudes and perceptions about research, their level of comfort and confidence in reading and applying research findings published in the literature, and their personal habits regarding reading the professional literature. An expert panel consisting of internal and external reviewers was used for construction of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by the students immediately preceding their research methods course, immediately after the completion of that course, and following the second research course, which included statistics and development of a research proposal. The subjects also completed the questionnaire after 1 year of physical therapy practice. Friedman's analysis of variance was used as an omnibus test to detect differences across time. In addition, a follow-up analysis using the Wilcoxon signed-rank procedure to examine differences between baseline data and data obtained during each follow-up was done for all items to determine whether a difference occurred at a time other than at the final posttest survey administration. Results. The students showed differences on 5 of the 10 items on the questionnaire during the study. Discussion and Conclusion. These items related to reading peer-reviewed professional journals, critically reading professional literature, relevance and importance of evidence-based clinical practice, and level of comfort with knowledge in research. [Connolly BH, Lupinnaci NS, Bush AJ. Changes in attitudes and perceptions about research in physical therapy among professional physical therapist students and new graduates. Phys Ther. 2001; 81:1127-1134.] Key Words: Attitudes, Educational outcomes, Research.

This research was partially funded by the Section on [...], PURPOSE: Schwartz's validated Theory of Integrated Value Systems (TIVS) defines systematic relationships among 10 types of values based on logical and systematic compatibilities and conflicts between the goals served by 44 individual values that make up the value types. The TIVS value types are: universalism, benevolence, conformity, tradition, security, power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation and self-direction. This study used the TIVS to describe, for the first time, the value structures of physical therapists (PT's) and student physical therapists (SPT's). SUBJECTS: Individuals in one state were studied to minimize work environment and demographic variability. The target groups were members of the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association (N = 1214) and final year SPT's enrolled in University's Department of Physical Therapy (N=209). Females made up 75.8% of the PT group and 78% of the SPT group. The median age categories were 38-43 years and 20-25 years for PT's and SPT's respectively. METHODS and MATERIALS: Responses were gathered from PT's by mailed questionnaire. SPT's were surveyed during class time. The measurement tool was an investigator-constructed questionnaire containing a modified version of Schwartz's Value Survey and biodata and work-related questions. Respondents rated the importance of defined personal value terms on a scale of 1 (not important) to 8 (supremely important). ANALYSES: A non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis was performed on intercorrelations among individual values and their ratings to produce a map on which each value term was uniquely placed according to its own x-y coordinates. A configural analysis procedure was used to draw the boundaries of the 10 value types. Descriptive statistics were also computed. RESULTS: Data from 565 (46.5%) PT's and 171 (92.3%) SPT's were analyzed. The value structure maps of both groups conformed to the general TIVS model except for achievement type values which were located next to security type values in place of power type values, Both groups rated benevolence (PT's = 6.45 ± .75, SPT's = 6.47 ± .73) and self-direction (PT's = 5.74 ± .95, SPT's = 5.84 ± .77) type values most important and power type values least important (PT's = 3.03 ± 1.16, SPT's = 3.15 ± 1.26). CONCLUSIONS: The value structures of PT's and SPT's matched closely the prototypical TIVS structural model. The groups gave similar importance ratings to most of the 10 value types. Both groups rated values with the goal of enhancing the welfare of others most important and values with the goals of social status and control over others least important. Finally, both groups associated achievement values with values having power and security goals. This differed from the TIVS model which has achievement type values associated with values having hedonistic and power goals.

Jelacic G, Worley D, Moore M; Master of Physical Therapy Program, College of St. Catherine, Minneapolis, MN [...], PURPOSE: This study was designed to determine differences regarding outcome requirements for student research projects between bachelor's & entry-level master's degree physical therapy programs. METHODS: A written survey was mailed to 146 program directors of all accredited US bachelor's and master's degree physical therapy programs. The survey requested information regarding degree type offered by the program, student research project requirements, and research group size. ANALYSIS: Frequencies were determined for degree type offered, group size, stage of research project completion, written outcome requirement, oral presentation outcome requirements, and poster presentation outcome requirements. Chi-square analyses were used to determine associations between program degree type & research project outcomes requirements. RESULTS: 82% of programs returned the survey. Among all schools, 78% required student research projects, but a greater number of entry-level master's programs (86%) than bachelor's programs (52%) required a project (p [is less than] 0.0003). The most common written requirement for master's programs was a paper in journal article format (51%), while bachelor's programs most often required a paper NOT in journal article format (60%). There was a significant association between the stringency of these written outcome requirements and degree type (p [is less than] 0.01). No association was found between degree type and the following variables: group size (3 or more students), stage of research project completion (usually included proposal, data collection, analysis, and interpretation), oral presentations (required by 80% of master's programs and 76% of bachelor's programs), or poster presentations (required by 36% of master's programs and 32% of bachelor's programs). DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: A previous survey (Kambeitz, Mattson, Moore, 1997) found that entry-level master's programs required more research coursework than did bachelor's programs. The present study extends those findings by showing that master's degree programs also required more stringent outcome from their student research projects.

A survey of American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) members assesses their utilization of APTA services. The use of electronic mail and information services by physical therapists is detailed.

In our society, occupation fixes social status more firmly than almost any other factor. Jobs have surpassed such traditional social distinctions as ancestry, religious office, or political affiliation in establishing [...]