Survey of rehabilitation therapy in clinical settings of Chongqing in 2015：some thoughts for local all-around development in rehabilitative profession / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective There is a huge demand for rehabilitative services in Chongqing whereas detailed information regarding local clinical services and rehabilitative professionals are unknown. Therefore, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to generate a profile of current rehabilitative status in Chongqing for reference of relevant local parties and peers in other provinces of China to create a larger picture of rehabil-itation in China. Methods The survey began in early January of 2015 and ended on October 20th of 2015. With two categories of information, including background of rehabilitation professionals and rehabilitative clinical services, the self-made questionnaire was sent via email to rehabilitation therapists working in local clinical settings which fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The reminder was sent once a month to those who did not yet replied. The software SPSS 20.0 was used to analyze the data descriptively. Results 7 out of 13 in-volved clinical settings responded with an overall response rate of 53.8%. 98 out of 122 copies were adopted based on filling requirement. The result revealed 68.4%(n=67) of the participants were junior practitioners, 57.1%(n=56) of them had less than 5 years experience and 45.9%(n=45) were holding a diploma with little research experience. As for clinical services, assessment of ROM (94.9%, n=93) and manual muscle testing (94.9%, n=93) were mostly used. The physical therapy service was more prevalent than occupational therapy services. The clinical field mostly involved was adult rehabilitation (77.6%, n=76). Bedside training in the acute phase (81.6%, n=80) and one-to-one treatment (92.9%, n=91) was the most commonly seen mode of service in the departments. Conclusion The local rehabilitative professionals were featured by their young age with comparatively low educational level, qualification and weak research skills. The clinical services they provided were yet quite basic and simple. Thus, a set of policies regarding education and profession in rehabilitation therapy should be facilitated instantly and it also calls for the establishment of local academic society for rehabilitation therapists, thus promoting an all-round development of rehabilitative profession.