Physiotherapists' participation in peer review in New Zealand: implications for the profession

Peer review is increasingly used for professional development and to monitor physiotherapists' competence to practice. This study set out to describe the experience of participating in peer review.

Qualitative descriptive methods were employed to elicit and analyze interview data from physiotherapists with experience as reviewers and having their practice reviewed.

Reviewers managed the process to provide an appropriate level of challenge to junior and senior therapists, and to avoid disrupting professional relationships. Those being reviewed reduced anxiety about the process and risk of negative feedback by putting their best practice on show, and where they could, by carefully choosing the reviewer and patient interaction to be reviewed.

When peer review has competing purposes it is neither an effective professional development tool nor an accurate measure of competence. Power and interpersonal relationships need to be acknowledged if peer review is used to assess practitioner competence.