Pre-Licensure Inter-Professional Perspectives: Pelvic Health Physiotherapy

Purpose: In this study, we examined knowledge and perspectives pertaining to pelvic health physiotherapy among medical, midwifery, nursing, and physician assistant students at McMaster University. Moreover, we identified opportunities to improve knowledge translation to facilitate inter-professional education in urogynecological care. Method: A cross-sectional design was created to distribute an online survey to participants using a modified Dillman approach. The survey assessed areas of clinical interest in, knowledge of the scope of practice of, and regulations governing pelvic health physiotherapy in specific, in addition to clinical applications. Fisher's exact and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess statistical significance. Results: A total of 90% of the participants incorrectly indicated that internal digital exams could be delegated to physiotherapy assistants, and 50% believed that Kegel exercises were appropriate for all presentations of pelvic floor dysfunction. Moreover, when prompted to select conditions that could be treated by pelvic health physiotherapists, only 2% of the participants selected the correct conditions. Conclusions: Knowledge in all four programmes about the scope of practice, authorized activities, and application of pelvic health physiotherapy is inadequate. To foster the optimal integration of urogynecology into the relevant health science curriculums, enhanced inter-professional education, inclusive of pelvic health physiotherapy knowledge, appears to be needed.