The prevalence of wound management physical therapist practice in the state of Texas

Wound management has become one of the ten physical therapy (PT) certification specialty areas. With this advanced clinical designation opportunity, more PT specialists and residencies with integumentary and wound management expertise will be needed for the educational and practice training of future specialists.

The purpose of this study was to characterize wound management practice by licensed physical therapists in Texas.

A Qualtrics survey was distributed to 19,159 licensed physical therapists. The questionnaire contained 23 questions that inquired into the subject's professional background, clinical experience, and opinions of wound care practice.

The response rate was 9.6% (n = 1,839) and 1,643 respondents indicated that they were currently practicing. Although 69.1% of active physical therapists (n = 1,136) stated that they had practiced wound care at some point of their career, most of them do not practice wound care anymore and their reasons were discussed. Of those active physical therapists, 41.3% (n = 679) of them reported wound care was being practiced in their facilities, but only 18.3% (n = 311) directly practiced wound care. The respondents felt that the prevalence of wound management physical therapists practice over the last five years has been decreasing.

The current prevalence of wound management practice is low and a decreasing trend of PT practice in wound care was observed in Texas. A limitation of this study is the low response rate. Future studies across different regions of the country are warranted.