Clinical education of physiotherapy students

EDITORIAL This Editorial introduces Journal of Physiotherapy’s article collection on clinical education of physiotherapy students. The article collection has been curated from papers published in the journal to facilitate access to important findings in this field, highlight trends in the research and summarise avenues for further investigation. The collected articles show educational models, novel approaches to finding clinical placements, early educational initiatives taken in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the current status of entry-level physiotherapy assessment, and insights into future directions for physiotherapy education

The perpetuation of ritualistic actions as revealed by young children's transmission of normative behavior

Children will comprehensively copy others' actions despite manifest perceptual cues to their causal ineffectiveness. In experiment 1 we demonstrate that children will overimitate in this way even when the arbitrary actions copied are used as part of a process to achieve an outcome for someone else. We subsequently show in experiment 2 that children will omit arbitrary actions, but only if the actions are to achieve a clear, functional goal for a naïve adult. These findings highlight how readily children adopt what appear to be conventional behaviors, even when faced with a clear demonstration of their negligible functional value. We show how a child's strong, early-emerging propensity for overimitation reveals a sensitivity for ritualistic behavior

Barriers and enablers of patient and family centred care in an Australian acute care hospital: Perspectives of health managers

The aim of this study was to identify and explore organisational barriers to, and enablers of, patient and family centred care within an Australian acute care hospital from the perspective of that hospital’s management staff. A qualitative study, incorporating purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews was undertaken in a 215-bed metropolitan acute care public hospital in Sydney, Australia. Fifteen health managers from a broad range of professional groups, including Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health and non-clinical services were interviewed. Interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed for key themes using the Framework Approach. The key barriers to patient and family centred care were: i) staffing constraints and reduced levels of staff experience, ii) high staff workloads and time pressures, iii) physical resource and environment constraints and iv) unsupportive staff attitudes. The key enablers of patient and family centred care were: i) leadership focus on patient and family centred care, ii) staff satisfaction and positive staff relations, iii) formal structures and processes to support patient and family centred care, iv) staff cultural diversity and v) health professional values and role expectations. This study provides an understanding of the factors that restrict and enhance patient and family centred care specific to an Australian acute care hospital setting. Implementation of strategies targeted at these factors may help the study site, and potentially other hospitals in similar settings, to improve patient and family centred care. In turn, this may lead to improved outcomes for patients, families, staff and healthcare organisations

Changing the mind: hypnosis and diabetes

[Excerpt] Diabetes, although a physiological disorder suffers the impact of negative psychological stresses through the dysfunctional activation of the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems. In fact, a variety of psychological variables have been found to be important in the metabolic control and management of diabetic patients, particularly regarding adherence to self-care behaviors and medication. Lifestyle therapy is the cornerstone of diabetes treatment and, therefore, any intervention that is able to achieve the control of glycaemia, prevent micro and macro complications of diabetes, improve patient’s quality of life and decrease diabetes risk factors is certainly welcome. [...](undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Promotion of Drinking Water Among Latino Immigrant Youth

Objective: To design an innovative intervention to increase drinking water behaviors among Latino immigrant youth. Methods: We conducted two rounds of focus groups, totaling 10 sessions (n=61), with Latino immigrant youth, aged 6-18 years, living in Langley Park, Maryland. Participants were stratified into focus groups by age group (elementary, middle, and high school) and language preference (Spanish and English). A professional, bilingual-speaking moderator used a semistructured discussion guide to examine: (1) what youth preferred to drink in different settings and why, (2) their reactions to promotional messages, (3) slogans that would entice them to drink more water in school and at home, and (4) concept testing. The design and analyses were grounded on the social environmental framework to understand how various environments shape drink preferences. The sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated into English. Two independent coders analyzed the data using an inductive approach to categorize texts according to recurring themes, concepts, and terms. Data were analyzed separately for each age group and language preference. After inter-rater agreement was achieved, final codes and sub-codes were defined in a coding dictionary. All transcribed discussions were entered into the software Atlas.ti and coded using the developed coding dictionary. Results: Beverage behaviors and preferences depended on (a) availability of water and other drinks, (b) perceived health benefits, (c) level of thirst, and (d) perceptions of taste and safety. There were no major differences in recurrent themes across age groups. Availability: Youth described that they preferred to drink bottled water at home, since this was what their parents made available to them. At school, however, most youth preferred chocolate milk, which is what was most available to them at lunch time. Youth described that they would not drink fountain water because it did not taste good, and that other forms of water were not available in the cafeteria. Older youth reported that water was often unavailable in vending machines at school. Perceived health benefits: Youth preferred to drink water to be attractive and to have energy. Concepts emerged around topics related to water makes you run, and athletes that drink water. Reactions to promotional messages that use celebrities were positive, but they did remark that some Latino celebrities endorse soda. Level of thirst: When really thirsty, youth preferred to drink water and only water to quench their thirst. They also recounted preferring water when it is hot outside. Promotional materials with these concepts received positive reactions. Taste and safety of tap water: Tap water was considered unsafe and distasteful both at home and at school. Having both English and Spanish represented in branding and slogans was considered important. Promotional materials were considered appealing if they were visually interesting, included a celebrity or an athlete, and were informative about water. Conclusions: A bilingual school- and home-based water promotion intervention that highlights (a) the health benefits of drinking water, (b) the power of water to quench true thirst, and (c) the safety, taste and benefits of drinking tap water is a promising strategy to target some of the barriers around drinking water behaviors among Latino immigrant youth

Cardiac conditions

This Editorial introduces another of Journal of Physiotherapy’s article collections.These are collections of papers on a particular topic, published in the Journal of Physiotherapy within the past decade and compiled to: facilitate access to important recent findings on the topic; highlight trends in research designs, methods, populations and interventions; and suggest avenues for further research. The studies in this article collection relate to physiotherapy management of cardiac conditions

Improving Completeness and Transparency of Reporting in Clinical Trials Using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) Checklist Will Benefit the Physiotherapy Profession

Incomplete reporting of interventions in physiotherapy studies is an important problem and The Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy endorses the use of the TIDieR checklist as a potential solution

Development of the Reporting Infographics and Visual Abstracts of Comparative studies (RIVA-C) checklist and guide

People often use infographics (also called visual or graphical abstracts) as a substitute for reading the full text of an article. This is a concern because most infographics do not present sufficient information to interpret the research appropriately and guide wise health decisions. The Reporting Infographics and Visual Abstracts of Comparative studies (RIVA-C) checklist and guide aims to improve the completeness with which research findings of comparative studies are communicated and avoid research findings being misinterpreted if readers do not refer to the full text. The primary audience for the RIVA-C checklist and guide is developers of infographics that summarise comparative studies of health and medical interventions. The need for the RIVA-C checklist and guide was identified by a survey of how people use infographics. Possible checklist items were informed by a systematic review of how infographics report research. We then conducted a two-round, modified Delphi survey of 92 infographic developers/designers, researchers, health professionals and other key stakeholders. The final checklist includes 10 items. Accompanying explanation and both text and graphical examples linked to the items were developed and pilot tested over a 6-month period. The RIVA-C checklist and guide was designed to facilitate the creation of clear, transparent and sufficiently detailed infographics which summarise comparative studies of health and medical interventions. Accurate infographics can ensure research findings are communicated appropriately and not misinterpreted. By capturing the perspectives of a wide range of end users (eg, authors, informatics editors, journal editors, consumers), we are hopeful of rapid endorsement and implementation of RIVA-C.</p