Teaching physiotherapy skills in culturally-diverse classes

Andrea Bialocerkowski, Cherie WELLS, Karen Grimmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
35 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background
Cultural competence, the ability to work in cross-cultural situations, has been acknowledged as a core skill for physiotherapists and other health professionals. Literature in this area has focused on the rationale for physiotherapists to provide culturally-competent care and the effectiveness of various educational strategies to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge about cultural competence by physiotherapists and physiotherapy students. However, there is a paucity of research on how students with different cultural needs, who are attending one university class, can be accommodated within a framework of learning core physiotherapy skills to achieve professional standards.

Results
This paper reports on steps which were taken to resolve the specific needs of a culturally-diverse body of first year physiotherapy students, and the impact this had on teaching in a new physiotherapy program located in Greater Western Sydney, Australia. Physiotherapy legislative, accreditation and registration requirements were considered in addition to anti-discrimination legislation and the four ethical principles of decision making.

Conclusions
Reflection on this issue and the steps taken to resolve it has resulted in the development of a generic framework which focuses on providing quality and equitable physiotherapy education opportunities to all students. This framework is generalizable to other health professions worldwide.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalBMC Medical Education
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes

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