Abstract
Two 2-day continuing education seminars were developed to address the orthopedic physical therapy deficits in Guyana. Material was presented in a way to address all stages of behavior change. Surveys evaluating preseminar and postseminar knowledge was conducted. Chart reviews to establish adherence to clinical practice guidelines were performed. Preseminar surveys revealed minimal knowledge of clinical practice guidelines, which was consistent with preseminar chart review data. Postseminar data indicate improvements in both knowledge and adherence to guidelines. A brief series of two 2-day seminars utilizing behavior change strategies to improve adherence to clinical practice guidelines shows promise for countries and regions that rely on international health volunteers to provide clinical instruction. Because this study is limited to one situation, further studies with longer follow-up in a variety of clinical settings are recommended to support generalizability of findings.
Highlights
BackgroundChronic musculoskeletal pain accounts for a third of all disability claims in the United States with over 7.6 million people on long-term disability for spine problems alone [1]
A total of 21 clinicians attended both symposia, and data were collected from those participants (Table 2)
Total respondents (n) Percentage with physical therapy degree Average years of practice Percentage physical therapists trained overseas Percentage of clinicians with at least 1 year rotation in orthopedics Percentage of clinicians currently work in orthopedic setting
Summary
BackgroundChronic musculoskeletal pain (excluding arthritic pain) accounts for a third of all disability claims in the United States with over 7.6 million people on long-term disability for spine problems alone [1]. To assist in providing the most efficacious care, clinical practice guidelines for physical therapy (PT) interventions have been established [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] These evidence-based guidelines provide practitioners assistance in evaluating and treating certain common musculoskeletal pathologies. As these guidelines were designed in response to the American Physical Therapy Association’s objective of standardizing clinical care and reducing unwarranted variation, clinical practice guidelines have started emerging utilizing the most current evidence-based research [5]. Despite evidence that treatment outcomes improve when utilizing clinical practice guidelines [13, 14], awareness and utilization of them is still not universal
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