Community Engagement Integral to Reimagining Rural and Remote Physiotherapy in Saskatchewan: Findings from a World...

Purpose: To provide recommendations to improve access to physiotherapy services in underserved rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Saskatchewan. Method: Through a World Café-facilitated discussion, 55 multi-stakeholder participants (including facilitators) discussed ways to improve access to physiotherapy services in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. Qualitative description happened through qualitive content analysis from data captured during the World Café-facilitated discussion. Results: Community engagement was found to be a central code, along with the interrelated categories: training programme and student experience; recruitment of physiotherapists; retention and physiotherapy practice; community- and team-based models of care; and virtual care and technology. Conclusions: Recommendations to improve access to physiotherapy services in Saskatchewan spanned from targeted recruitment and training of physiotherapy students to supporting physiotherapists who practise in geographically isolated environments. Community engagement was highlighted as necessary to ensure effective, sustainable, and appropriate measures to better train, recruit, retain, and support physiotherapists and access to physiotherapy services in rural and remote areas across Saskatchewan.