The Perceptions of Slovak Physiotherapists of their Practice Placement Experience

Authors

  • Katarína Sedlácková University of Brighton
  • Sarah-Jane Ryan University of Brighton

Keywords:

practice placement, clinical education, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, physiotherapy education, Slovakia

Abstract

The practice education of undergraduate physiotherapy students is crucial for developing  skilful and knowledgeable healthcare professionals. In Slovakia, there is a lack of literature exploring physiotherapists’ practice education, which might have a serious impact on its future provision. Therefore, this study aimed to explore novice physiotherapists’ perceptions of their practice placement experience using a qualitative design.
A purposive sampling of five participants was recruited to conduct semi-structured interviews which were translated and transcribed verbatim. Collected data underwent Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al. 2009). This resulted in four major themes that fully captured participants’ perceptions of their practice placement experience. Identified themes were as follows: ‘The practice educator who cares?’; ‘Clinical placement issues’; ‘Learning sources’ and ‘Ready for practice?’.
Overall dissatisfaction and frustration from participants’ experience of practice placements suggested the necessity to put more focus on development, delineation and provision of practice education in Slovakia. Also, more research related to practice education of physiotherapists and preparation of the practice educators in Slovakia was recommended.

Author Biography

Katarína Sedlácková, University of Brighton

Katarína Sedlácková, Znievska22, Bratislava 85106, Slovakia
Email: sedlackova.katarina.msc@gmail.com, Phone: +421 904155507

References

Originally published by the Higher Education Academy

PBLH, Vol 1, Issue 2 (October 2013)

doi:10.11120/pblh.2013.00015

Downloads

Published

2016-01-27

How to Cite

Sedlácková, K., & Ryan, S.-J. (2016). The Perceptions of Slovak Physiotherapists of their Practice Placement Experience. International Journal of Practice-Based Learning in Health and Social Care, 1(2), 23–36. Retrieved from https://publications.coventry.ac.uk/index.php/pblh/article/view/276

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2013): International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a  Creative Commons License "Attribution-NonCommercial No Derivs 4.0 International" (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) which permits others to use the publication as long as the authors are appropriately cited.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
  4. The Author grants to Coventry University an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to publish this article in this journal in addition to the licence granted at paragraph 1 of this copyright notice.