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Barry S.1
1Coventry University, Physiotherapy, Coventry, United Kingdom
Background: The diversity of service users, carers, families and colleagues that Physiotherapy students encounter in all areas of health care highlights the importance of developing high levels of cultural competence. Physiotherapy students are required to develop knowledge, attitudes and skills that allow them to understand and appreciate cultural differences, and to have the capacity to provide effective physiotherapeutic treatment that takes into account the cultural beliefs, behaviours and needs of service users. Online International Learning (OIL) is a form of educational virtual mobility. OIL projects are specifically designed to use Internet based tools to virtually connect students from Coventry University with students from around the world so they can asynchronously meet, learn, work and collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds, cultures and nationalities without leaving the UK.
Purpose: To evaluate whether undertaking an OIL project allows participating students to develop a greater intercultural awareness and to consider the formal inclusion of OIL projects within the BSc curriculum.
Methods: Eight final year Physiotherapy students from Coventry UK and 8 physiotherapy students from Gondar University Ethiopia participated in a voluntary non-credit bearing OIL project over a 3 week period. Students undertook online activities designed to explore social, educational and professional diversity. Two patient case studies, one designed from each site were used to facilitate professional discussion relating to physiotherapy assessment and management. An on-site focus group was then undertaken with each group of students to evaluate whether participating in this OIL project had changed students prospective on physiotherapy and to appraise the educational value of such an experience.
Results: Eight students from Coventry University attended the UK focus group and 6 Students from Gondar University attended the focus group in Ethiopia. Participants reported good engagement with the getting to know you discussions and commented positively on using video and text media to exchange information that highlighted many key differences in their social and academic circumstances. There was significant information exchange in the clinical discussion forum with many insightful messages, often supported with evidence such as research articles and web links to additional information. The majority of students reported a greater confidence in digital literacy and levels of intercultural awareness having explored health care issues from disparate health care environments. Students reported that they had been introduced to new evidence supplied by others and researched new evidence themselves when looking for supporting material to attach to their own posts.
Conclusion(s): As a result of participating in this OIL project students reported that they had a new and greater understanding of cultural diversity that would change how they approach physiotherapy assessment and treatment in the future.
Implications: This study has shown that OIL projects can enhance professional intercultural awareness and help to develop professional communication and levels of digital competency. Further work is required to develop credit bearing OIL projects that can be embedded within Physiotherapy BSc curriculum.
Funding acknowledgements: This study was unfunded
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: This study was approved by the Coventry University Ethics Committee, project reference number P37374
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
