Advice-giving skills in pre-registration physiotherapy training

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Allied Health Professions
• Clinical Skills Development

Background:

• Growing emphasis on patient self-management in healthcare.
• Clinicians require advanced skills in patient advice and empowerment.
• Optimal patient outcomes depend on effective self-management support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how undergraduate physiotherapy students acquire skills for patient advice.
• To explore student knowledge, skills, and confidence in providing advice.
• To understand the factors influencing advice-giving in clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Convenience sampling of 50 physiotherapy students (BSc and MSc).
• Semi-structured interviews with first-year students (n=13).
• Six focus groups with mixed-level students (n=37) across different training stages.

Main Results:

• Thematic analysis revealed 6 themes: advice content, patient-centered approach, delivery, acquisition, perceptions, and uptake.
• Students highly valued advice-giving but felt under-prepared for practice.
• Student status and placement pressures influenced advice delivery.

Conclusions:

• Developing high-level self-management promotion skills is vital in physiotherapy.
• Students face challenges in acquiring and confidently delivering advice.
• Academic and practice educators need to provide explicit support for skill development.