Women's and men's health physiotherapy, the content covered and it's perceived importance within entry-level physiotherapy programs in Australia – an observational study

Abstract

Purpose Women’s and men’s health physiotherapy are expanding areas of clinical practice. The aims of this study were to examine the course content and its perceived importance of specific content on women’s and men’s health within physiotherapy programs and identify any barriers to delivering the content. Methods An online survey, with open and closed questions was distributed to universities in Australia with an entry-level physiotherapy program, in 2019. The ‘Likert’ scale responses were then analysed by assigning a scale from 1–5. The open responses were descriptively analysed for themes. Results There were 15 responses from the 22 university programs in Australia. Content that should be covered ‘well’ to ‘very well’ include pelvic floor first exercise; pelvic floor anatomy; incontinence urinary and bowel; exercise – during pregnancy and post-natal; pelvic girdle pain; pelvic organ prolapse; rectus diastasis; osteoporosis; the role of physiotherapist in maternity ward; and pelvic floor muscle assessment-external with real time ultrasound; and in men’s health: male culture and pelvic health; and prostate cancer pre and post-surgical rehabilitation. A barrier to teach content for some courses included space within the curriculum. Clinical placements and research projects were not available in all programs. Conclusion Women’s and men’s health content is perceived to be important to be taught in entry level physiotherapy programs. Identifying what is perceived important content to cover may assist future curriculum design.