Good Practice in Australian Physiotherapy Education

The Community Health Practicum is a 5 week practicum in which the student explores areas of health need that have not been traditionally covered in physiotherapy programs, such as mental health, aged care, health promotion, sports coverage, obesity prevention and management. These areas reflect the changing health care needs of the Australian population and will ensure that graduates are well positioned to provide appropriate care in the changing health climate. For example, one community health practicum might involve 3 days per week in a nursing home and weekends covering weekend sports, such as school football or local netball teams.
This practicum offers less formal structure and greater diversity than traditional practicums and this will enable students to gain the generic skills of flexibility, time management and adapting to changing health care needs.
 
Students are required to generate independent learning contracts specific to the practicum. These learning contracts are developed and negotiated with practicum mentors. Students and practicum mentors work collaboratively to develop strategies to ensure attainment of the learning contract. In addition to assessment of physiotherapy clinical skills, students are required to reflect on the diversity of the practicum and provide evidence of the learning process.

Our teaching approaches include lectures, small group learning and problem solving, ownership of outcomes, practical skill development and participation in assessment. We teach our students that research has many different approaches and that there is value in all of them. We also show students that statistics are tools to assist in summarising and understanding data, an approach that has particularly assisted in breaking down barriers to reading the research literature. We embed different methods of teaching into our research training model to ensure that students attain as many graduate qualities as possible.
Practical research activities include collecting data from children on school premises. Six measurement stations are used and the students then participate in data amalgamation at the end of data collection. The first station is the questionnaire station, which includes assigning appropriate (pre-set) ID numbers to participants, reconfirming their previously written informed consent on the day of testing, refamiliarising them with the study process and checking that questionnaires have been appropriate completed. The other stations collect data related to the child's assigned ID number, on anthropometric data, school backpack contents, weight and design, child's balance and coordination, child's muscle performance (strength and endurance), hypermobility and standing posture.
 
Data handling and analysis is also taught. Each student learns to record data appropriately on child identity, and to enter this data accurately using MS Excel. Validation techniques are taught, whereby students check their data entry for accuracy before presenting it to senior research staff for inclusion in the overall dataset.
 
Students work in small groups for all activities, which teaches them team management skills. They work together to set their research questions based on required data items, and with the assistance of senior research and teaching staff, identify the research design and statistical analysis required to answer the research question. They all have a responsibility to contribute to the final research report, in the manner expected of professional research groups (i.e. taking ownership of each step in producing the research report) (ref JAMA conditions for authorship)
 

In year 1 of the Undergraduate course and the first summer semester of the Graduate Entry Course, students are introduced to information about normal development in children. In addition to lecture format supported by slide presentations to demonstrate reactions and stages described, students participate (in groups) in practical classes to which (1)babies (0-18months) and (2) children aged 2-5 years are invited. As the children play with each other and the equipment provided, the tutor is able to demonstrate in real time the range of reactions appropriate for each child's age. Students can interact with the children if they are approached and also gain an appreciation of the social and behavioral aspects of development.
Students can then choose to seek a placement in a Paediatric context when completing their Preclinical Professional Practice commitment throughout their program. This supports the "lifespan" context in which Paediatrics is taught in stages across the programs. The whole approach is further developed during later courses in the undergraduate and GEMS programs when video footage of specific cases is used as stimulus material for group discussion and presentation, which prepares the students for their clinical practice.
 
To complete the cycle of experience, in the Physiotherapy Motor Clinics placement during final year, as well as assessing and treating children with a range of Paediatric conditions, students also attend a local kindergarten where they complete specific observational tasks on normal children to provide them with an enhanced knowledge base of "normal skill and development" against which they can compare their clients. We feel that this sequence of experiences allows students to gradually and with increasing complexity build their understanding of how children develop and the range of skills they may demonstrate at different ages, providing a baseline for comparison of clinical clients.

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The blind dinner is hosted in the first physiotherapy subject: An introduction to physiotherapy.The goal of the evening is to expose the students to a short experience of what it means to be visually impaired. The use of a social setting is ideal as the consequences of the loss of sight are played out in making new acquaintances, partaking in a round table discussion, manipulating utensils, organising drinks and attempting to feed oneself in a socially appropriate way.
A guest speaker with a visual impairment who is also a fellow student of Griffith University talks to the group about his/her experience of studying and getting around campus and how everyday difficulties are negotiated.
 
The evening ends with a debriefing session by the manager of student equity services at Griffith University to give the students an opportunity to express what they have noticed and learnt form the exercise and to answer any questions they may have.