Continuous professional development (CPD) has gained prominence in the last decade to meet improved self-development and health care services among health professionals. Being practitioners serving clients in health care, therefore, necessitates the importance of the physiotherapist’s participation in activities of CPD. This paper aims to identify how physiotherapists view CPD, barriers to its progress and its impact on healthcare practice. This is a qualitative study with one-to-one interview sessions involving open-ended questions to facilitate free flow of idea that are rich with information. Twentytwo physiotherapist (17 females and 5 males) participated. Four main themes were generated following analysis: (i) comprehension of what is CPD (ii) outcome of CPD (iii) barriers to undertaking CPD and (iv) strategies to improve participation in CPD. Further sub-themes were generated from the themes suggestive of physiotherapists’ awareness and concerns related to CPD activities and problems encountered when embarking on CPD participation. In conclusion, physiotherapists should recognise the importance of participation in CPD activities either for self-development or to provide effective health care services. The main barrier to CPD activities that was identified was a support system that facilitates enhancement in such activities. This has major implication such as mandatory participation in CPD among staff and for managers to ensure that an effective mechanism is in place such as funding, schedule events and moral support.
This study was aimed at identifying the effectiveness of hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme as compared to home-based pulmonary programme in improving the condition of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital. A total of 35 patients aging between 17 to 78 years old were randomised either to hospital (48.6%, n = 20) or home (43%, n = 15) -based pulmonary rehabilitation by the Physiotherapists. For the hospital-based rehabilitation programme, the patients were scheduled to come to the hospital twice a week for eight weeks. For home-based rehabilitation programme, subjects were scheduled to come to the Physiotherapy Department twice to learn on the exercises that need to be carried out before they are allowed to do on their own at home. Each subject was given a diary to record the exercises that have been done. A telephone call is made once a week for monitoring purpose. Assessment of lung function, six-minute-walk test and Borg score were carried out before and after the eight-week rehabilitation is conducted. The Results showed that there was no significant change in lung function for both groups before and after rehabilitation. There is a significant different (p < 0.05) in 6MWT before and after rehabilitation for hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation patients. However, the difference is not significant (p > 0.05) for home-base pulmonary rehabilitation patients. The results also show that there exist no significant correlation between lung function and 6MWT even though there is an increase in walking distance at baseline or the eighth week. In conclusion, hospitalbased pulmonary rehabilitation is more effective than the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in improving the exercise endurance which would helps in reduce dyspnoea among COPD patients.
Keywords: Home-based pulmonary programme; Hospital-based pulmonary programme; COPD; Lung function
This study identified the effectiveness between home-based and hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation program on the quality of life of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Thirty five patients who met the inclusion criteria were referred by physicians and randomized to either hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PRPH) or home-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PRPR). The PRPH program was scheduled twice a week for eight weeks at the Physiotherapy Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Whilst, the PRPR group was required to attend sessions at the Physiotherapy Department twice to learn the exercise regimens before carrying out the exercises themselves at home. Subjects were asked to record activitites in a diary and a telephone call was made once every two weeks to ensure compliance towards the exercise regimens. The SF-36 questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale were outcome measures used in assessing status of patients prior to treatment and after intervention at the 8th week Seventeen (48.6%) subjects completed the PRPH and 15 (43%), the PRPR. Results indicated that in the PRPH group there were significant improvements in some of the domains of SF-36, i.e., role physical (p = 0.012) body pain (p = 0.040), general health (p = 0.008) and role emotional (p = 0.012). In the PRPR group, the Geriatric Depression Scale mean score was 1.8 ± 0.41 at baseline compared to 1.69 ± 0.48 following intervention (p > 0.05). Whilst, among the PRPH group, the mean was 1.87 ± 0.35 at baseline and 1.53 ± 0.52 after eight week (p < 0.05). In conclusion, hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation is more effective than the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in improving the quality of life and reducing depression among patients with COPD.
Keywords: Home Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program (PRPR); Hospital based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program (PRPH); COPD; Quality of life (QOL).
Clinical education provides students with opportunities to integrate knowledge and skills at progressively higher levels of performance. This study determined the significant events that undergraduate physiotherapy student reflects on during their clinical experiences as they learn to become a physiotherapist. A qualitative study using reflective instruments of structured debriefing sessions and diary writing was carried out. This involves 25 fourth-year students from the Faculty
of Health Sciences, UKM during their 12 weeks of clinical placements in 3 different modules (first semester). They were required to describe an event, its value and their reaction to it, and to discuss the effect of the new learning experience and how it would influence their respond in the future. Our findings confirmed that the process of writing a diary makes a considerable impact to the student experience during clinical placement. The subjects begin to construct a personal identity of becoming a physiotherapist through the process of developing confidence, confirmation of practices and assimilating of knowledge. In conclusion, the main themes generated from a reflective diary included their reflection of personal growth, on how they learnt in a clinical setting, and on the ethical and professional behaviors of themselves and colleagues. This provides the clinical educators with valuable information to design meaningful clinical learning experiences that would assist students to become a good physiotherapist for the future.
Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) is one of the disease-specific questionnaires to assess health related quality of life (HRQoL) among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Objectives: This study investigate the validity and reliability of Malay version CRQ among COPD patients. Methods: The CRQ was administered twice to 46 patients with COPD (mean FEV1 44% predicted, FEV1/ IVC 37% predicted) from Medical Center of University Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM).Test-retest reliability was assessed using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). Internal consistency was determined using Crohnbach’s alpha coefficients (α = 0.7). Spearman’s correlation coefficient was done among the scores of CRQ, St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and six- minute walking test (6MWT) to examine the concurrent validity of the CRQ (p 0.70) was observed for 3 domains of CRQ with exception of dyspnoea domain (α = -0.631). Test retest reliability demonstrated strong correlation (ICC >0.80). Concurrent validity of CRQ, showed significant correlations observed between domain of SGRQ’s symptom, impact and total scores of SGRQ with CRQ’s dyspnoea and emotional function (-0.3< r < -0.4; p