A pilot study of physiotherapy education using videoconferencing

We investigated the possibility of instructing people in how to assist patients with activities of daily living via videoconferencing. A videoconference system was installed in two rooms to simulate a connection between a home and an institution. The subjects were five first-year university students. First, they saw a video-tape on several general assistance procedures to help a patient with sitting up, standing up and walking with a cane. Then they assisted a simulated patient who reproduced the effects of right hemiplegia due to a stroke. They also received instructions from a physiotherapist in another room using the videoconference system. The students experienced most difficulty in assisting the patient to stand up from sitting with legs stretched in a tatami room. Their mean score in the first session for this was 34.5 points out of 45, and this increased to 38.5 in a second session, after a question and answer period. The present study shows that the delivery of rehabilitation services is feasible in remote places.