Narrowing the physiotherapy knowledge-practice gap: faculty training beyond the health sciences

ABSTRACT

Physiotherapists seek to improve client movement and promote function within an individual’s unique environmental and social realities. Despite this intention, there is a well-noted knowledge-practice gap, that is, therapists generally lack sufficient foundational preparation to effectively navigate societal challenges impacting contemporary healthcare. As one step toward addressing the issue, we propose an educational solution targeting current and future physiotherapy faculty, whose responsibilities for entry-level course development and curriculum design substantially impact student readiness for clinical practice. We propose that physiotherapy faculty trained via postprofessional education in a non-biomedical field (e.g. psychology, education, and philosophy) will be uniquely prepared to provide students with tools for dealing with complex social issues facing their clients; critical analysis skills; statistical and technological training; and a deeper theoretical and philosophical understanding of practice. Taken together, such interdisciplinary tools could help address the knowledge-practice gap for physiotherapists and promote the ongoing evolution of the profession in concert with contemporary healthcare. Physiotherapists who pursue interdisciplinary studies may more deeply understand the challenges faced by clinicians and may be well-positioned to leverage knowledge and methods in another scientific discipline to expand and transform the scope of solutions to these challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• faculty
• professional
• physiotherapy

Acknowledgments

This project was funded in part by a Foundation for Physical Therapy Research Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) Level I Scholarship supported by the American Physical Therapy Association Scholarship Fund and a PODS Level II Scholarship supported by the Rhomberger Fund (SMS).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).