Perception of Physical Therapist Regarding the Role of Physical Therapy in Emergency Department

Background: The physical therapy profession is expanding day by day. They can practice as a primary contact healthcare provider, independently diagnosing and treating several conditions and disorders through comprehensive knowledge and expertise. Their role is also emerging in the emergency department setting but only hand full of physical therapist are found currently in emergency department.

Objective: The motive of this study is to determine the perception of physical therapist regarding the role of physical therapy in emergency department.

Method: It is a cross sectional study in which physical therapist of various hospitals of Hyderabad, Karachi and Nawabshah were distributed questionnaire extracted from research of Marla J. Weisend et al on “physical therapists’ perception of physiotherapy in emergency department” in 2011. Sampling was convenient. The analysis of data was carried out by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21.

Results: 1172 subjects completed and returned questionnaires. Majority (1116 participants) believed that physical therapist was an invaluable strength to emergency department and 1115 participants believed that merging physical therapist in emergency department is feasible. 1117 participants were confident in assessing and treating patients in emergency department. Factors including commanding radiological imaging (1122 participants), instructing lab test (1106 participants) and advising NSAIDs (1109 participants) also represent the positive perception of physical therapist about their role in emergency department.

Conclusion: Positive perception is present among physical therapist regarding their role in emergency department but majority of them have not assessed or treated patient in emergency department.

Author(s): *1Muhammad Hussain Nagori, 2Muhammad Zubair Khan,1Dr. Shamsa, 1Dr Kanwal Lalwani

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