Iain is an extended scope physiotherapist working in a specialist musculoskeletal service in the NHS. Alongside clinic practice, he is currently undertaking a part time PhD. The study is based on patient expectation, experience, and satisfaction with musculoskeletal physiotherapy.
Musculoskeletal conditions are highly prevalent across the population and result in a significant burden for the individual, the National Health Service, and the wider economy. Patient experience and satisfaction with treatment is thought to be an indicator of both compliance with treatment and clinical outcome. While this has been studied in medicine, nursing, and long term conditions there has been little work in musculoskeletal physiotherapy. A three phased research study was developed involving a systematic review and narrative analysis, a series of interviews with patients, and the development and pilot testing of a questionnaire to measure experience. This study presents some of the first work looking at the patient experience in musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the UK. As most published questionnaire tools evaluate satisfaction or are non UK based, this questionnaire represents the first UK based patient reported experience measure for patients receiving musculoskeletal physiotherapy. Clinical and organisational developments can be based on the assessment of patient experience. Further, a model that explains the relationship between expectation, experience, and satisfaction has been proposed.
Loughran, I. & Rae, G. (2015). Physiotherapist prescribing in lower back pain: A case study. Nurse Prescribing, 13, 94-97.
Loughran, I., Adams, N. & Caplan, N. (2016). Patient Expectation, Experience, and Satisfaction with Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy. Conference Paper, British Sociological Association.
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