The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of physiotherapy and chiropractic students regarding each others’ professional practice

South African Journal of Physiotherapy

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of physiotherapy and chiropractic students regarding each others’ professional practice
 
Creator Naidoo, N. Bühler, L.
 
Subject — physiotherapy; chiropractic; health knowledge; attitudes; professional practice
Description Introduction: The roles of physiotherapists and chiropractors demon-strate some overlap. Both are members of a multidisciplinary team and contributeto the holistic care of patients. Good understanding of each others’ professionalpractice may lead to good working relationships with effective referrals, inter -disciplinary and multidisciplinary management of patients. Purpose: To investigate the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of undergraduatephysiotherapy and chiropractic students about each others’ professional roles inclinical practice. Methodology: Data was obtained using a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. First and final-yearphysiotherapy (n = 72) and chiropractic students (n = 49) participated. Results: First and final year physiotherapy students scored 58% and 62% respectively in the “test” on chiropractic;chiropractic students scored 52% and 68% respectively in the test on physiotherapy. Seventy percent of the chiropractic and 14% of the physiotherapy students had visited the practice of other profession. Sixty seven percent of the chiropractic and 38% of the physiotherapy students found it was effective. Forty seven percent chiropractic and 80% physiotherapy students considered physiotherapy and chiropractic to be in direct competition. Sixty six percentof the chiropractic students and 49% of the physiotherapy students expressed the intention of working together withthe other profession.  Discussion: The reason for the possible feelings of competitiveness could be because in South A frica there is vastoverlap of practice in both professions; Physiotherapists and chiropractors are seen to use modalities that are similar.This may be viewed as an indication of the importance in defining the roles, scope and characteristics of both physio-therapy and chiropractic.Conclusion: The knowledge of the physiotherapy and chiropractic students is equal, however, chiropractic studentshave more positive perceptions and attitudes towards physiotherapy than physiotherapy students have of chiropractic.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2009-02-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajp.v65i2.85
 
Source South African Journal of Physiotherapy; Vol 65, No 2 (2009); 32-37 2410-8219 0379-6175
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.co.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/85/82
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2009 N. Naidoo, L. Bühler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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