Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Principles in Doctor of Physical Therapy Students: Intentions for Future Practice

There is clear evidence that the manual handling of patients can increase risk for injury, however, most Doctor of Physical Therapy programs continue to teach body mechanics as “best practice” for injury reduction. Limited research exists regarding integration of SPHM content into DPT curriculum. The purpose of this study was to examine a curricular model and gain insight into student intentions for integration in clinical experiences. This was a convergent, mixed methods design. Third year DPT students completed surveys (n=33) and semi-structured interviews (n=16). Two-sample t-test tested differences in categorical variables and Pearson correlation coefficient identified associations between demographics, learning activities, and survey statements. Constant comparative method identified major themes from interviews. Students who spent more time in psychomotor and reflective learning activities had higher intentions to use knowledge in final clinical education experiences. Hands-on activities were cited as being most influential for integration of material into practice. An embedded, multimodal SPHM curriculum is feasible to improve student intention to utilize SPHM content in final clinical education experiences.

Haines J, Arnold M, Cheng C

Keywords: physical therapy students, curriculum, clinical education, safe patient handling and mobility