Preliminary investigation into the role of physiotherapists in disaster response

Increasingly, disasters and disaster response have become prominent issues in recent years. Despite their involvement, there have been almost no investigations into the roles of physiotherapists in emergency disaster responses. Additionally, physiotherapists are not employed in emergency disaster response by many of the principal non-governmental organizations supplying such care, although they are included in military responses in the United States and United Kingdom, and in Disaster Medical Assistance Teams in the US. This paper, based on a small qualitative study, focuses on the potential role and nature of input of physiotherapists in disaster response.

A qualitative approach was chosen due to the emergent nature of the phenomenon. Four physiotherapists, all of whom had been involved in some type of disaster response, agreed to participate. Semi-structured telephone interviews were used to explore participants' experiences following disaster response, and to gain ideas about future roles for physiotherapists. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and later analyzed using coding and categorization of data.

Four main themes emerged: (1) descriptions of disasters; (2) current roles of the physiotherapist; (3) future roles of physiotherapists; and (4) overcoming barriers. Although all four physiotherapists had been ill-prepared for disaster response, they took on multiple roles, primarily in organization and treatment. However, participants identified several barriers to future involvement, including organizational and professional barriers, and gave suggestions for overcoming these.

The participants had participated in disaster response, but in ill-defined roles, indicating a need for a greater understanding of disaster response among the physiotherapy community and by organizations supplying such care. The findings of this study have implications for such organizations in terms of employing skilled physiotherapists in order to improve disaster response. In future disasters, physiotherapy will be of benefit in treating and preventing rescue worker injury and treating musculoskeletal, critical, respiratory, and burn patients.