Effective practice for physiotherapy professional development

Abstract

Physiotherapy is a profession that is committed to ensuring continuing professional development (CPD) across the life of a practitioner’s career. Indeed, a requirement of registration in Australia is the completion of regular CPD to ensure quality clinical practice in the context of an ever-expanding research base. Learning activities considered as CPD include attending lectures and short courses, reading publications, mentoring, simulationbased learning and completing online learning modules. Understanding which learning activities support changes in clinical behaviour required for improved patient outcomes would enable physiotherapists to select the most clinically impactful CPD activities. The desire to assist physiotherapists in making evidence informed decisions about CPD underpinned the body of work in this thesis. The overall goal of the program of research was to investigate effective practice for CPD in physiotherapy with a focus on learning activities that enhance clinical practice and improve patient outcomes. A four-step process was completed, consisting of three research studies (one secondary and two primary) and the development of a theoretical framework.

Date of Thesis submission	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Sponsors	Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
Supervisor	Felicity Blackstock (Supervisor) & Lucinda Chipchase (Supervisor)