Search results for "physiotherapy student"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Graduating Physiotherapy Students’ Conceptions of their own Competence
2017
A competence-oriented approach has recently emerged in higher education and thus far, not much attention has been paid to how “competence” itself is understood in education. The purpose of this study was to examine how graduating physiotherapy students perceive their competence at the end of their studies. The data comprised interviews with 33 graduating physiotherapy students. The data were analysed with the phenomenographic approach. The findings indicated that graduating students had different and wide-ranging conceptions of what competence in physiotherapy entails and what their own competence covers. The descriptive categories – mastering core skills, understanding the theoretical basi…
The phenomenon of movement quality: a phenomenographic study of physiotherapy students’ movement experiences
2016
Background: This study aimed to explore how students in a physiotherapy bachelor program acquire awareness of their own movement quality and form conceptions of movement quality. Methods: The study was designed as an elective course, implementing Basic Body Awareness Therapy principles. The participants were six PT students. Two data sets – students’ diaries and reflective group interviews – were collected, one a week before the course ended, and one on its completion. Phenomenographic research methodology was used to transcribe and analyze the data. Results: Three descriptive categories emerged reflecting the PT students’ conceptions of movement quality phenomenon as a widening process: I:…
Practical work in physiotherapy students’ professional development
2017
Learning practical work through cooperation between school and working life is part of physiotherapy higher education. Students learn practical work through the integration of theoretical, practical, tacit and situational knowledge in a socialization process. Workplace practices and habits direct students’ learning. This study answers the question: What kind of conceptions of learning practical work do physiotherapy students have? Longitudinal data written by 21 volunteer students (mean age 25 years) was collected over three and a half years. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Learning practical work proceeds in five phases: (1) the basis of practical work, human movement and a…
Physiotherapy Students’ Experiences about Ethical Situations Encountered in Clinical Practices
2021
(1) Background: It is important to explore the ethical situations that physiotherapy students encountered in their clinical practices. (2) Methods: Qualitative, explorative, descriptive study. The participants included third-year physiotherapy students. They had to write five narratives about ethical situations encountered in their clinical practices. Krippendorff's method for qualitative content analysis was used to cluster units within the data to identify emergent themes. The study protocol was approved by the authors' University Ethic Committee of Human Research (H1515588244257). (3) Result: 280 narratives were reported by 64 students (23.34 ± 4.20 years, 59% women). Eight categories we…
Physiotherapy students’ conceptions of skill at the beginning of their Bachelor studies
2015
Skills have recently received widespread attention in education policy documents and discussions. This article reports the results of research on Bachelor’s degree physiotherapy students’ conceptions of skill at the beginning of their studies. The aim of the present study was to examine how beginning students understand skill, and the focus was on conceptions of skill in general rather than on any particular skills. The participants of the study were 35 physiotherapy students. The data were gathered within the first two weeks of their university studies. Specifically, requested essays written by the students were analyzed using the phenomenographic approach. The data-driven analysis yielded…
Perspectives on physiotherapy students' professional competence development during their education
2019
The aim of this dissertation was to investigate, from different perspectives, how physiotherapy students understand and experience their competence and its development during their education. The research focused on the whole study path of students (n=35) from the very beginning of their studies to their graduation. The data, essays and open interviews, were analysed using phenomenographic analysis and narrative analysis approaches. The purpose was to identify the various ways in which beginning physiotherapy students understand the conceptions of skill, to describe graduating students’ experiences of reflective writing as a tool for learning, to identify students’ conceptions of their comp…
The story models of physiotherapy students’ professional development. Narrative research
2014
The aim of this article is to investigate students’ narratives about their professional development process. This research brings new kind of knowledge to continuing learning, developing education and planning the curriculum in physiotherapy education. The European Qualification Framework (EQF) defines learning competences in education; qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of eight voluntarily participating physiotherapy students’ portfolios written during their whole study time. The longitudinal data describes them as learners and their development process. The major findings are four main episodes in professional development: the previous studies, a new way…
Problem-Based Learning in Professional Studies from the Physiotherapy Students’ Perspective
2018
The aim of the study was to investigate how physiotherapy students using a problem-based learning approach develop into experts during higher education, and answers the question: How do physiotherapy students at bachelor’s level understand the problem-based learning approach while learning to become professionals? PBL is examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of longitudinal data written by 15 voluntary students from two different higher education institutions and collected during 3.5 years. The main results on the new way of learning strengthen earlier conceptions of the importance of reflection in the learning process. The PBL method activates a reflection process b…
Stories of professional development in physiotherapy education
2022
This study examines graduating physiotherapy students’ narratives related to their professional development. The data comprised interviews with 33 graduating physiotherapy students. The data were analyzed using the narrative analysis approach. As a result, five different story models were identified. The descriptive story models were named: 1) “Study path dominated by life changes”; 2) “Realizing the connection between physiotherapy theory and practice”; 3) “Self-regulated and practical-oriented learning path”; 4) “Becoming a critical developer”; and 5) “Multiprofessional working towards expertise”. In students’ stories, there appeared different turning points that illustrated especially me…
Changing landscape in professional development : narrative research from the physiotherapy students' perspective
2018
Physiotherapy students construct their professional development gradually in a socio-cultural process between school and working life in the health care sector. The Health Care Professionals Act 559/1994 and National Qualification Framework (NQF) define the legislative basis and education for physiotherapists in Finland. The European Qualification Framework (EQF) defines the learning outcomes in education and they focus on what knowledge, skills and competences the learner has acquired by the end of the learning process, but it does not identify how outcomes are achieved. The aim of this study is to investigate and understand physiotherapy students’ stories about their professional developm…