Self-rated Confidence Versus Examined Competency of Safe Patient Handling from a Physiotherapy Student Perspective

Readiness of physiotherapy students to undertake safe patient handling (SPH) risk assessment, make reasoned, clinically based decisions and application of SPH techniques, and teach SPH techniques to others was assessed. One hundred and ten students were recruited from the undergraduate (UG) and graduate-entry-masters (GEM) programs. Change in self-rated confidence before and after training was determined and related to examination marks. GEM and UG students have similar knowledge increase, but GEMs gained more self-rated confidence to undertake SPH, perform individual risk assessments prior to SPH, and train nonprofessionals in SPH techniques (P<.01). No self-rated confidence item predicted exam results. In the exam, the GEM cohort performed better on the applied theory but worse on practical skills (P<.01), but, overall, GEM scores were lower than UG cohort scores. More knowledge of neurological and pediatric conditions appeared advantageous to the UG group for self-rated confidence and exam results.

Nitz JC, Johnston V

Keywords: physical therapy students, competency, safe patient handling