Maryam Shabbir, Faryal Aftab, Sarah Ehsan, Usman Janjua.
Physiotherapy Students' Attitude towards Physiotherapist-Patient Relationship.
J Riphah Coll Rehab Sci Jan ;03(02):67-70.

Background: The physician-patient relationship has been bedrock of care since all the times. This relationship is essential in the transference of health care facilities, treatment plans, diagnosis and improvement in the medical fields. Objectives: The objectives of the study are; to explain and quantify the attitudes of physiotherapy students, undergoing pre-clinical rotations, towards patient-centred approach and to measure the association/statistical significance in these attitudes and demographic data and to determine the factors associated with patient centered attitude. Methodology: This is an observational cross sectional study. It was done at department of physical therapy Azra Naheed Medical College, University of Lahore and School of Allied Health Sciences. Study was completed in 4 months after the approval of synopsis. Non-probability, purposive sampling was used. Sample size was calculated to be of 215 students. Self-administered questionnaire consisting of validated 18-items, Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) was used to find out the attitude of physiotherapy students towards physiotherapist-patient relationship. Results: The total mean score and standard deviation of all the 18- items of PPOS scale was 3.025 ± 0.46. The mean and standard deviation of sharing item was 3.08 ±0.62, while the mean and standard deviation for caring items appeared to be 2.94 ± 0.59. The range of total PPOS score was 3.42, maximum value being 4.68 and minimum 1.26. Females showed more patient centered approach with a value of 3.05 ± 0.55 than males (Mean ± SD=2.92 ± 0.45). The mean and standard deviation of family in medical profession for PPOS had almost same values. The gender*year interaction was not statistically significant because the P-value was greater than 0.05 (P-value=0.067). But the gender and year individually had statistically significant difference as the P-values of both variables were less than 0.05. Gender (p = 0.04) and year (p = 0.02). Conclusion: The total Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) mean was high for female gender and early years of medical school. This showed that the factors that were responsible for the patient-centered attitude of physiotherapy students, these were female gender and early years of medical school. Male gender was found to be associated with physiotherapist-centered approach irrespective of the year of medical school.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com