Educating patient educators: enhancing instructional effectiveness in physical therapy for low back pain patients

Abstract

The objective of this research project was to study the effectiveness of a training program for the enhancement of patient education skills in physical therapy. In this paper the improvement of five of these skills is tested. These skills are aimed at a better monitoring of adherence problems during the treatment and at enhancing self-efficacy of the patient after treatment. In order to test the effectiveness of the program, complete treatments of 19 physiotherapists have been assessed before (1142 sessions, 130 patients) and after (775 sessions, 88 patients) the training program. Information on the instructions and solutions given to the patients was obtained with a registration form, completed after each session by the physiotherapist. The patient's perception of the effectiveness and feasibility of instructions was obtained from questionnaires, completed by the patient on three occasions. After the training only a minority of the trained skills appeared to be improved. All in all, the training program was not very effective. More effort is needed to develop training programs aimed at promoting patients' self-efficacy as well as measurement instruments to assess the effects of such programs.

Systematic review of knowledge translation strategies in the allied health professions

“…Fifteen studies investigated a single KT intervention (pharmacy n = 5, physiotherapy n = 2, occupational therapy n = 4, dietetics n = 3, speech-language pathology n = 2) [46,50,51,53,54,59,60,63,64,67-69,71,75,76]. Seventeen studies examined multiple KT interventions (pharmacy n = 7, physiotherapy n = 9, occupational therapy n = 2) [45,47-49,52,55-58,61,62,65,66,70,72-74].…”

“…Seventeen studies examined multiple KT interventions (pharmacy n = 7, physiotherapy n = 9, occupational therapy n = 2) [45,47-49,52,55-58,61,62,65,66,70,72-74]. Following the EPOC classification scheme, the predominant single KT intervention was educational meetings (n = 11) [46,51,53,54,59,63,64,69,71,75,76], followed by educational materials (n = 2) [50,67], educational outreach visits (n = 1) [68], and a financial intervention (n = 1) [60]. The studies employing multiple interventions all contained at least one education-related component.…”

“…The studies using educational meetings as the single KT intervention used professional/process outcomes (n = 10) [46,51,53,54,59,63,64,71,75,76] and economic outcomes (n = 1) [69]. …”

“…As described in Table 2, less than a third of the quantitative studies showed a consistent effect on primary outcome measures (n = 8) [47,48,50,52,64,65,71,72]. Five studies could not be classified as consistent or mixed effect on primary outcome measures: unclear (n = 2) i.e.…”

“…Eight studies demonstrated a consistent effects on primary outcomes; however, four studies demonstrated effects that were not statistically significant [48,64,71,72]. The remaining four studies demonstrated a statistically significant, positive effects on primary outcomes [47,50,52,65].…”