Enhancing Patient Education in Physical Therapy: Insights into Practices, Barriers, and Health Literacy

Patient education is a primary intervention that physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapist assistants (PTAs) use in patient care; however, not much is recently known about patient education practice in the United States. This study addressed this gap by surveying PTs and PTAs with a survey instrument developed from the works of Forbes (2017), Snook (2022), Coleman (2017), and Zappin et al. (2023).

A concurrent mixed-mode survey was distributed to 715 therapists, yielding 157 completed responses.

Top barriers to effective patient education included patient's cognitive status, emotional status, and lack of trust/rapport between patient and provider. Respondents reported using 6 of the 8 recommended clear communication techniques; however, most were not familiar with the correct definition of health literacy universal precautions.

Although the therapists believe written instructions are important and frequently are provided, they rarely evaluate the level of the reading material. Additionally, differences were found based on provider demographics, including differences in health literacy knowledge, use of medical jargon, and use of written and verbal instructions. Implications for clinical practice and future directions for research related to patient education and clear communication are discussed.