Survey among Physical and Occupational Therapists on Comprehension and Application of Patient Education

Background Patient education is known as a standard in clinical patient management. Due to the rising number of chronically ill people it becomes more and more important. In physiotherapy and occupational therapy patient education is considered to be an increasingly central intervention. The actual understanding of patient education and its application is however unclear. Objective To evaluate the understanding of patient education and the self-declared application of patient education inthe daily practice of physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a university clinic. Method Online cross-sectional survey among all 139 physiotherapists and occupational therapists of the university clinic. Results The return rate was 42% (n=59); 55 questionnaires were evaluated. In relation to the total group, more occupational therapists (16; 64%) than physiotherapists (39; 34%) responded. Individual definitions of patient education became more sophisticated and comprehensive with growing professional experience. There were no differences in the understanding and application of patient education between the two professional groups. All therapists (with little or high professional experience) referred to information transfer as the most common part of patient education (91%). Aspects of counselling and behavioural interventions were more frequently mentioned with growing professional experience. Half of the physiotherapists and occupational therapists (n=28) reported patient education as being an important part in their basic training and a few more than a third (n=19) had already attended further education on the subject. Virtually all therapists (n=54) wished to learn more about patient education. Conclusions Patient education is an important issue for physiotherapists and occupational therapists. This survey's results provide the basis for a more amplified discussion. Aspects of counselling or behaviour interventions were less frequently mentioned compared to information transfer, which should be incorporated during planning of in-house post-graduate professional training.