Climate Change in entry-level Physiotherapy education in Australia - a survey

Kerstin McPherson, Katrina Li
Purpose:

This project aimed to explore the opinions of entry-level students to climate change and sustainability and their inclusion in entry-level physiotherapy programs in Australia.

Methods:

A survey was developed based on two previous surveys for health professionals (Álvarez-Nieto, et al., 2022, Ryan et al., 2020), and was distributed in April 2023, via the discipline leads of physiotherapy programs in Australia. The survey comprised of 19 statements, each requiring a response on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), and 3 open comments areas. The responses from the Likert scales were analysed using descriptive statistics with the number and percentage of responses that “Agree” to “Strongly Agree” and were reported and comments from the open comment areas were analysed using conceptual qualitative content analysis to identify the existence and frequency concepts in responses, and then summarised into key themes and descriptions.

Results:

There were 34 responses. This study found that the majority of student respondents felt that climate change is happening, and the climate is in crisis. Very few students felt that climate change was important to physiotherapy or should be included in physiotherapy curriculum. Sustainability was important to the physiotherapy as there was a responsibility to conserve resources, and therefore should be included in curriculum. Physiotherapy students may lack knowledge and understanding of the impact climate change and pollution upon health care and health and the relevance of climate change and sustainability to physiotherapy clinical practice and the physiotherapy profession. 

Conclusion(s):

There is an urgent need to integrate climate change and sustainability into physiotherapy entry-level curriculum to prepare graduates for the future.


Implications:

When seen as part of professionalism and “doing no harm”, integrating aspects of climate change should be seen as an essential component of the curriculum rather than an additional burden, Shared knowledge of how to integrate content needs to be shared between entry-level physiotherapy programs.

Funding acknowledgements:
Unfunded
Keywords:
climate change
sustainability
entry-level curriculum
Primary topic:
Education
Second topic:
Other
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
Charles Sturt University Ethics committee
Provide the ethics approval number:
H23485
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
Yes

Back to the listing