Perceptions of physiotherapists about their role in health promotion at an acute hospital: a qualitative study

Physical activity promotion for people with spinal cord injury: physiotherapists’ beliefs and actions

“…In addition, the paper has made a contribution to the literature by identifying that, whilst physiotherapists do value the importance of PA for people with SCI, PA promotion remains largely absent within the UK and Ireland SCI rehabilitation context. This is despite physiotherapists being identified by spinal cord injured people as trusted and valued messengers of PA [15,22,23], and physiotherapy being identified as the ideal profession to promote, guide and prescribe PA. [13,[23][24][25][26][27][28] The inconsistent PA promotion efforts from the physiotherapists also highlight the lack of structured and embedded PA promotion practices across SCI centres in the UK and Ireland.…”

“…Furthermore, echoing research in the UK [27] and other countries such as Sweden and New Zealand [12], the physiotherapists located multiple barriers to PA promotion within the healthcare system they worked in. These barriers included limited sport and exercise facilities within rehabilitation, a lack of funding to support PA initiatives and an absence of social support within the community to assist people with SCI becoming physically active.…”

“…[22,23] Some consider that the healthcare professionals best placed to promote a physically active lifestyle to people with SCI are physiotherapists (or physical therapists). [23][24][25][26][27] This is because "the roles of physiotherapists as promoters, preventers and rehabilitators puts them in an ideal position to influence exercise behaviours in every individual they treat". [28,p.11] Moreover, a key responsibility of physiotherapists in the context of rehabilitation is to provide "support for people with disabling conditions to attain independence 5 and self-determination to be physically active for their long term health".…”

“…Furthermore they claim "physiotherapists use the health promotion approach of participation and empowerment in their treatment of people and groups to improve their lifestyles and health through physical activity". [13,p.16] Despite physiotherapists being identified as key in promoting PA, currently little is known about the PA promotion practices within physiotherapy [27,28] and specifically within SCI rehabilitation. The perceptions physiotherapists hold about PA and SCI, and what they do in terms of promoting PA both in rehabilitation and the community is unknown.…”

“…[48] Furthermore, this training should continue at the micro level with rehabilitation centres delivering workshops on PA to establish promotion of PA as a structured and integral component of physiotherapy practice. [27] It is essential that hospitals deliver mandatory training to enhance healthcare professionals' understanding of their role and responsibility in PA promotion and facilitate communication between the multidisciplinary team (e.g. physiotherapists, sport therapists).…”