Knowledge and competence in orthosis of physical therapy students:Changes over time with clinical training experience

Abstract

Purpose : The study revealed how the self-evaluation of physical therapy students' knowledge and competence in orthotics changed throughout their clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to help examine the academic and clinical areas of orthotics in pre-graduate education.

Participants and Methods : The subjects were 20 physical therapy students at a 3-year technical college who had completed their clinical training. In a group survey, the degree to which the students possessed the 20 items related to knowledge and ability of orthosis required for physical therapists was investigated by a questionnaire on a Likert scale.

Results : The items that physical therapy students improved on through clinical training were "ability to determine if an orthosis device is necessary" and "ability to explain to other professionals regarding the use of an orthosis device. Many other items showed a decreasing trend.

Conclusion : It was confirmed that "the ability to judge whether an orthotic device is necessary" and "the ability to explain the use of an orthotic device to other professionals" may be suitable to be improved through clinical education. It was confirmed that there are many contents that do not improve orthosis knowledge and orthosis ability. Therefore, it is possible that clinical training does not provide sufficient experience with orthosis. It was suggested that training schools need to actively incorporate content that is not well experienced through clinical training in on-campus education, such as practical skills and exercises.