Involving people with lived experience in physiotherapy education – Research report one: Reflecting together to enhance teaching outcomes

Article accepted

This article has been accepted for publication. Peer reviews and author responses are available at the end of the article.

Abstract

In September 2014, the physiotherapy regulator for England and Wales (Health and Care Professions Council) introduced an education and training standard requiring service user and carer involvement in all approved programmes (HCPC 2018) including physiotherapy. Despite this, a scoping literature search on the involvement of people with lived experience in physiotherapy education and training returned only two results (Thomson and Hilton 2011, 2013), both of which pre-date the regulatory requirement. This means that there is no documented scientific literature on a client's lived experience involvement in a physiotherapy course since the introduction of this standard.

Reviews

Please provide a review in the form of a summary that addresses the following main themes. Note that the purpose of the review process at OpenPhysio is not to act as a gatekeeper to knowledge but to help the author present the best possible version of their ideas. Your comments below may not necessarily be used to accept or reject the article but should rather aim to identify areas where the author/s can improve their work.

1. Complete, coherent, and well-organized presentation:

Well organized. A few grammatical and punctuation errors are highlighted below.

2. Sufficient explanation of the significance of the problem:

Problem is highlighted and described.

3. Clear demonstration of the relevance to the field (beyond the case presented):

Well demonstrated in the introduction and conclusion.

4. Original contribution to the topic of physiotherapy education:

Original report.

5. Compelling presentation of the problem within a theoretical framework (where appropriate):

Theoretical framework included (Schon’s process).

6. Establishment of a relationship between the problem and other relevant literature:

Highlights the lack of current literature and links results from the report to relevant literature.

7. Appropriate research design and method:

N/A

8. Accurate and useful interpretation:

Discussion and conclusion highlights all the important aspects found in the report.

9. Sound argument and analysis:

Lack of literature identified, importance of including persons with lived experience included with references and as mentioned previously, discussion and conclusion well written.

10. Effective conclusion about the implications for physiotherapy education, research, and/or practice:

Implications for practice included and relevant.

If, in addition to the points above, you could provide more detailed comments and feedback below, that would also be appreciated.

Abstract

Not provided.

Introduction/background

Thomson and Hilton report from both the student (2011) and the service user (2013) perspective of involvement in a physiotherapy programme.

I would use the phrase “on the” instead of “of”.

They identify clear impact on students’ process of ‘becoming’ a physiotherapist (2011:47) and benefits to the service user of participating (2013).

I would replace “of” with “as a result of”

What it does suggest is the absence of a well-developed culture and framework for high quality, evidenced informed public involvement activity in physiotherapy education in the UK which needs to be addressed.

Add comma after “UK”.

We focus on the collaboration between Rachel and Vikram in the design and delivery of a physiotherapy teaching session on abdominal surgery.

I would suggest identifying the persons in brackets, next to their name, for ease of reading, e.g. Vikram (physiotherapy lecturer), etc.

Report

In 2019, I was presented with a great opportunity of teaching abdominal surgery and the importance of Physiotherapy management.

“Physiotherapy” should not be written in capital letters.

I suggested that Rachel focus on one aspect of her history. We agreed that she would share and present one surgical condition with a focus on the care received in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in the ward along with the role of Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) and Physiotherapy.

I would remove the capital letters here as well.

 

Overall, the report was interesting to read and sparked my interest in incorporating persons with lived experience into my lectures. In addition, it forced me to reflect on my current preparation for lectures.

Discussion and Conclusion

All the important aspects from the report are captured well in this section.

Please provide a review in the form of a summary that addresses the following main themes. Note that the purpose of the review process at OpenPhysio is not to act as a gatekeeper to knowledge but to help the author present the best possible version of their ideas. Your comments below may not necessarily be used to accept or reject the article but should rather aim to identify areas where the author/s can improve their work.

General comments

  1. Complete, coherent, and well-organized presentation: The report is well-written and well-organised.
  2. Sufficient explanation of the significance of the problem: The problem is identified early on in the report.
  3. Clear demonstration of the relevance to the field: The relevance for practice and professional education is made clear.
  4. Original contribution to the topic of physiotherapy education: The report contributes to establishing a foundation and norm of sharing educational practice that would benefit health professions educators.
  5. Compelling presentation of the problem within a theoretical framework (where appropriate): The authors draw on appropriate theory (Schon’s work on reflection in, and on, practice) to support the decisions made in the programme.
  6. Establishment of a relationship between the problem and other relevant literature: The connection between the problem statement and literature is clear.
  7. Appropriate research design and method: N/A
  8. Accurate and useful interpretation: Clear and logical interpretation of the findings.
  9. Sound argument and analysis: N/A
  10. Effective conclusion about the implications for physiotherapy education, research, and/or practice: The implications for practice are clear, concise, and provide useful suggestions for health professions educators.

If, in addition to the points above, you could provide more detailed comments and feedback below, that would also be appreciated.

Abstract

Not provided

Introduction

> introduced an education and training standard requiring service user and carer involvement in all approved programmes

Should you explain what an ‘approved programme’ is?

> a scoping literature search on the involvement of people with lived experience in physiotherapy education and training returned only two results

To be fair, this only means that programmes aren’t publishing their collaborations. The way that this is written (i.e. “despite this”) seems to imply that this collaboration isn’t happening. I see you note this in a couple of sentences, but maybe clarify here as well.

> They identify clear impact

Sugest you change ‘impact’ to ‘impacts’. Same for the next sentence.

Report

I was thoroughly engaged with the transcript that follows. However, I wonder if it would help to signpost the upcoming structure to the reader, especially since these reports don’t follow the expected outline of a typical publication.

Discussion and conclusion

I found this section to be clear and concise.

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