To explore physiotherapists’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration in home care.
Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted in French-speaking Switzerland with physiotherapists practicing in the home care setting. Questions were designed to explore physiotherapists' perceptions regarding interprofessional collaboration in the home car setting. The interviews were recorded and then manually transcribed. A thematic analysis was conducted.
Four themes emerged from these data: 1) interprofessionality; 2) the role of physiotherapists in home health care; and 3) professional validation. Interprofessional collaboration is perceived by physiotherapists as defaulting in home care, their role is not clearly defined, their work is not sufficiently recognized, and digitalization is none of their concerns.
The interviews with the practicing physiotherapists who participated in this study allowed us to analyze their perceptions of interprofessional collaboration, their role, responsibilities and professional validation. This analysis led to a better understanding of their expectations and to propose recommendations to better respond to their need for recognition in home health care and to participate in the reflections to ensure the sustainability of our profession in this rapidly expanding field.
To know physiotherapists’ perceptions of their role in home care settings will allow to set up a system that fosters interprofessional collaboration and validate each professions’ input in a whole healthcare team. A future study will shed light on macro, meso and micro features of our interprofessional work in the context of community care.
Interprofessionality
Professional validation
