A stimulating, practice-based job facing increased stress – Clinical supervisors’ perceptions of professional role, physiotherapy education and the status of the profession

Abstract

The aim was to study perceptions of professional role, education and the status of the profession among clinical physiotherapy supervisors. Five focus group discussions were conducted with 15 supervisors attached to four universities in Sweden. Qualitative analyses were carried out using constant comparisons. Triangulation of researchers was used to increase trustworthiness. The supervisors experienced themselves as being in the centre of two competing and changing fields – the academic setting and the clinic in healthcare organization. The contact with students and their updated knowledge base were the most positive aspects of being clinical supervisors. To create a good learning environment for the students was considered important, but lack of time in all aspects of the work created stress and dissatisfaction. Students’ hands-on skills and treatment techniques were regarded to be rather poor and there is too much emphasis on theoretical knowledge and research methods in the curriculum. The physiotherapy profession has potentials to develop in innovative fields such as health promotion and disease prevention outside the hospitals, but healthcare with its hierarchical organization is a hindrance for this development. Collaborative efforts to bridge the gap between university and clinical setting are needed.

• Focus group discussion
• hands-on skills
• healthcare organization
• physiotherapy education
• stress
• student supervision
• theory–practice gap