Factors Influencing Student's Satisfaction in the Physiotherapy Education Program

Despite the expansion of the physiotherapy program over the past decade in Ethiopia, there is modest knowledge of the extent of physiotherapy students' satisfaction. This study was conducted at the Department of physiotherapy, University of Gondar in Ethiopia.

The objective of this study was to assess the satisfaction of students with the teaching and learning process and to identify the factors influencing course satisfaction amongst physiotherapy students. This questionnaire survey investigated the effects of demographic variables, perceptions of satisfaction, and education-related parameters on the level of student satisfaction with their educational experience.

An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted by recruiting entry-level physiotherapy students during 2018. Data were collected from a sample of 173 physiotherapy students using structured and validated self-administered Students Satisfaction Questionnaires. Logistic regression model was used to identify factors significantly associated with student satisfaction in the teaching and learning process.

Out of 173 participants, most of them 112 (64.7%) were male and the majority of them (37%) were third-year students. The overall student satisfaction was 33.1% for all categories. Awareness about physiotherapy education before enrolling into the physiotherapy educational program (AOR 6.3, 95% CI: 2.2-17.8), year of study (AOR 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02-0.67) and availability of classroom furniture (AOR 0.05, 95% CI: 0.04-0.66) were statistically significant associated factors for student satisfaction.

The overall student's satisfaction on the learning and teaching process was low, in particular, the satisfaction for the clinical training is also below par, which is a major concern. Area of intervention and endorsements identified by this study was information about physiotherapy before joining the university, course duration, and availability of the classroom furniture. The efforts to raise physiotherapy student satisfaction in Ethiopia shall focus on creating awareness of the physiotherapy education program at the pre-college level and improving classroom facilities in the first place.