Roles and Tasks of Physiotherapists in Nursing Homes: A Survey

Physiotherapists in nursing homes perform a diversity of roles and tasks. But the delivery of physiotherapy services varies widely between organizations and between individual physiotherapists. This depends on both organizational and personal factors. This study aims to investigate to what extent physiotherapists in Dutch nursing homes agree on the scope and content of their professional roles and tasks.

We performed a cross-sectional survey study of a convenience sample of physiotherapists in nursing homes. The questions were divided into five themes: (1) care and functional problems (falls, incontinence, physical strain, decubitus, inactivity/immobility, pain, problems with lying and sitting, the use of physical restraints, malnutrition and sarcopenia, overweight, behavioral problems, oedema, joint contractures), (2) referrals and accessibility, (3) assessments and examinations, (4) interventions and actions, and (5) organizational matters. We asked the participants to answer the questions on a five-point Likert scale. We defined consensus when ≥75% of the participants rated the question with a Likert-score of 4 or 5 or with a Likert-score of 1 or 2.

Sixty-five physiotherapists returned the survey. They agreed that physiotherapists play an essential role in the management of prevention of falls, mobility problems, transfer problems, ergonomic advice, physical strain, pain, problems with sitting and lying, sarcopenia, and joint contractures. There was a discrepancy in consensus regarding what a physiotherapist should do in the specific cases versus what they actually do.

Physiotherapists in nursing homes agreed they have an important role in a variety of care and functional problems. However, there was a difference between what needs to be done versus what is actually done by the physiotherapists. Future research should focus on the underlying reasons for this inconsistency.