‘What should we teach?’ A U.K. survey comparing clinician and academic views on content of the pre-registration musculoskeletal physiotherapy curriculum


McRobert, Cliona J ORCID: 0000-0001-5763-2314, Trainor, Kate, Rees, Anna ORCID: 0000-0002-7242-588X, Saetnan, Eli, Keane, Pauline ORCID: 0000-0001-6914-2208, Sharp, Joanna and Slimming, Jonny ORCID: 0000-0003-2660-5094 (2023) ‘What should we teach?’ A U.K. survey comparing clinician and academic views on content of the pre-registration musculoskeletal physiotherapy curriculum Developing Academic Practice, 2023 (Novemb). pp. 1-35. ISSN 2732-5725, 2732-5725

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Abstract

Evolving evidence underpinning musculoskeletal physiotherapy challenges the definitions of contemporary clinical practice and pre-registration curricula. This research uses an online national survey to compare clinician (272) and lecturer (61) views on the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s four pillars of practice (manual therapy and therapeutic handling; exercise, movement, and rehabilitation; therapeutic and diagnostics technologies; and allied approaches, including psychologically informed approaches) with the aim of establishing their clinical and educational utility. Findings indicate that close alignment exists between practising U.K. musculoskeletal physiotherapists and U.K. pre-registration physiotherapy lecturers on the ongoing relevance of exercise therapy and psychologically informed approaches to behaviour change. The paper also shows that a mismatch exists in the clinical and educational use of both manual therapy and electrotherapy between practising physiotherapists and physiotherapy lecturers. Future research should focus on the highlighted need to continue to align pre-registration musculoskeletal curricula with both the evidence base and clinical practice for the curricular areas of electrotherapy and manual therapy. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 4201 Allied Health and Rehabilitation Science, 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, 3202 Clinical Sciences, 42 Health Sciences, Complementary and Integrative Health, 6.7 Physical, Musculoskeletal, 4 Quality Education
Divisions: Faculty of Health & Life Sciences
Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Population Health
Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > School of Life Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 16 May 2024 09:23
Last Modified: 30 Jan 2026 09:08
DOI: 10.3828/dap.2023.15
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.3828/dap.2023.15
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3173121
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