Physiotherapy is the branch of health care that uses physical manipulation, movement, exercise and education to promote mobility and physical fitness and to prevent and treat injury. It is a profession within the wider healthcare sector and is internationally recognised as a vital component of multidisciplinary rehabilitation programmes.
Despite the HCPC’s requirement for service user involvement in physiotherapy education and training, there is little evidence of this taking place. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to evaluate students’ feedback on their clinical learning environment and clinicians’ teaching attributes during their undergraduate studies.
People with Parkinson’s disease fall frequently, leading to debilitating effects on confidence and quality of life. The PDSAFE trial tested whether home physiotherapy can prevent falls in people with Parkinson’s disease, by using a programme of exercises and educating them on how to reduce their risk of falling. This paper describes the methods of this large, multicentre, randomised controlled trial.
Identifying muscle activity is an important aspect of physiotherapy assessment. Real-time ultrasound can reliably detect, with a high degree of accuracy, alterations in the electrical signals from muscles during isometric contractions, even when they are very low. This has potential for use in physiotherapy practice and in research.