Physiotherapy clinical guidelines for people with spinal cord injury

Overview

This project aims to develop clinical guidelines for the physiotherapy management of people with spinal cord injuries. These will provide succinct summaries for physiotherapists and people with spinal cord injury (SCI) about the evidence for different physiotherapy interventions. There are no known similar guidelines that are specifically for physiotherapists. The project partners will be people with SCI, physiotherapists working in SCI services throughout Australia and NZ and senior SCI academics.

Method

A three-phase mixed method study will be used to produce and implement the guidelines:
Phase 1  – Inquiry (qualitative inquiry to understand perspectives and priorities and reasons for types of therapy)
Phase 2 – Guideline development (systematic reviews, consensus meetings, guideline development and launch)
Phase 3 – Implementation (translation of guidelines into practice).

Status of Research

Data collection and Analysis for Phase 1 completed .

• 4 focus groups with Physiotherapists completed
• 2 focus group with current inpatients/out-patients receiving physiotherapy
• 4 interviews with people with SCI

Phase 2 delayed due to COVID-19

Outputs

Presentation at ANZCoS 2019 in Melbourne by Dr Joanne Glinksy “Development of physiotherapy clinical practice guidelines for people with SCI.”

Related information

Funded by a Physiotherapy New Zealand Neuro SIG Award.