ADVANCED PHYSIOTHERAPY PRACTICE PROGRAMME

Advanced Physiotherapy Practice Programme

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Research aim3

Research question3

Hypothesis4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

Introduction5

Soft Tissue Injuries5

Physiotherapy6

Musculoskeletal Disorders8

Physiotherapy Practice13

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY15

Research Design15

Literature Search15

Sample15

Key Points16

Research Procedure17

Ethical Considerations19

Time Scale1

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS1

REFERENCES3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy is the part of expert area of physiotherapy that has a focus on exact assessments, diagnosis and treatments of musculoskeletal injury. Musculoskeletal injury can be of different types and different places of human body that is to joint, muscle, bone and nerves. Frequent conditions for the treatment are neck and back-pain, shoulders, hips and knees injury. Musculoskeletal Physiotherapists frequently provide manual therapies treatments technique for instance joint mobilisations or manipulations and massage to bring back normal functions, in combination with exercise program (Jones, Round, 2004, p.56-65).

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy has become a well-recognized and respected sub-discipline within the physiotherapy profession. The emergence of the bio-psychosocial theory and the implementation of new insights into the pain mechanisms have been two of the most powerful catalysts for change at work within this profession. The fast evolution during past decades gave rise to the need for a structured framework (Yeung, 2004, p.258).

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the most common in the world the problem is associated with work-related health. In countries workers complain of backache and almost as many the same muscle. MSDs are a serious problem: impact on health of individual employees and increase the costs of and social costs incurred by the company. These are then cured by the musculoskeletal physiotherapy that is a specialized field of physiotherapy (Syme, 2009, p.111).

Physiotherapy is defined as the practice or the assessment of physical function and the treatment, rehabilitation and prevention of physical dysfunction, injury or pain, to develop, maintain, rehabilitate or augment function or to relieve pain. Physiotherapy is a practice of drug-free health care. Physical therapists work in partnership with people of all ages to break down barriers, physical function, and that means working with patients before and after surgery, to help people cure directly from the illness and chronic diseases, injuries, automotive and industrial accidents and age-related conditions. Physical therapists also play a significant role in health promotion and disease prevention (Stewart et al. 2000: pp. 797).

Physiotherapists have the daunting task of defending what they do through increased efficiency, improved outcomes and ensuring maximum cost-effectiveness. They are being challenged to be accountable for their practice and yet, they have not embraced a universally accepted theoretical concept that supports their practice. The profession's inability to understand the importance of theoretical frameworks has been attributed to physiotherapy's gap in understanding its own theoretical knowledge base. Despite this void, the application of theory to practice has been consistently promoted in order to help ensure the future of physiotherapy and improve clinical skills and patient care. To date, the only published grand theory of physiotherapy is the Movement Continuum Theory of Physical Therapy. However, this theory has not been applied to research studies across all clinical contexts, including the home care environment. Accordingly, it is relevant to use the results from this study ...