DEVELOPING COMPETENCE IN HEALTH ADVOCACY AMONG PHYSIOTHERAPY TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING

V. Gangai¹, C. Clausen², A. Shoham²

Background: The population in Canada is aging and it is questionable whether our healthcare system will be able to manage all the difficulties that people face as they get older. Consequently, our healthcare system may be facing a crisis as people have greater difficulty accessing necessary services and as costs to tax payers climb dramatically.
Health advocacy involves promoting health and wellness with the goal of potentially reduce individuals’ risks of sustaining injuries and developing certain diseases. However, healthcare professional education has not been formally addressing health advocacy in curriculum thereby not meeting this societal need. As advocacy is not addressed, students emerging from Physiotherapy Technology programs are missing crucial attitudes and skills necessary to engage in effective wellness promotion and disease prevention. As a result, healthcare professionals may be missing out on valuable opportunities to engage in health promotion and potentially reduce people’s risks of developing preventable conditions.

Purpose: This project aimed to contribute to the discussion on pedagogy in healthcare worker education. This study determined whether and to what extent students’ attitudes towards a health advocacy role changed throughout a Geriatrics service-learning course in a Physiotherapy Technology program. It also identified to what extent students feel more competent to engage in health advocacy following this type of course.

Methods: This study used a convergent mixed methods approach. As part of standard curriculum, 17 third-year students engaged in a 15-week service-learning course during which they worked with seniors at a community centre. Students designed exercise and wellness modules   that they offered to community participants on a weekly basis. They also sought to identify potential risks in the seniors’ profiles and attempted to address these risks with education that focused on prevention. During this course, students reflected on their learning by way of four reflective journals that were written at 5-week intervals. These journals were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. As part of this study, students also completed a pre-course and post-course survey that measured changes in students’ attitudes and perceived level of competency with respect to the health advocacy role. Quantitative data was statistically analyzed using t-tests.

Results: Qualitative data revealed a meaningful change in students’ attitudes and perceived level of competency following the service-learning course. As students gained more robust knowledge of advocacy and developed more empowering, hopeful attitudes towards the role, they were better positioned to engage in the critical reflection needed to build their competency. This was supported by the quantitative data that revealed a significant change in both attitude and self-reported level of competency following the service learning course.

Conclusion(s): These results suggest that service-learning could be a potentially interesting instructional strategy for programs that aspire to foster development of the advocacy competency in their students.

Implications: The results generated by this study could inform curriculum development and planning in Physiotherapy programs throughout the world. Such a practice has the potential to ultimately improve the quality of care received by the public and the health of society.

Funding, acknowledgements: This work was unfunded.

Keywords: Physiotherapy Technology, Health Advocacy, Service Learning

Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Dawson College

Committee: Dawson College Research Ethics Board

Ethics number: GANGV1819146