ReviewInternational journal of emergency medicine2018
Patients' and healthcare professionals' experiences and perceptions of physiotherapy services in the emergency department: a qualitative systematic review.
Review in International journal of emergency medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Physiotherapy in Nigerian emergency departments: a national survey of physiotherapists' perceptions of practice.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Exploring Advanced Practice Physiotherapist Scope of Practice by Discharge Diagnosis: A Review of 10 Years of Data From a Tertiary Hospital Emergency Department.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2026Article
- Emergency department physiotherapists: consideration of perceived barriers and facilitators to help optimise their role in the Australian emergency department.International journal of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Experiences of Physiotherapy Students, Health Care Providers, and Patients with a Role-Emerging Student Clinical Placement in an Emergency Department: A Qualitative Study.Physiotherapy Canada. Physiotherapie Canada · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWorldwide, emergency department (ED) attendances and admissions to acute care have increased significantly. Many EDs are adding physiotherapists to their team thereby allowing doctors to see more cases that are 'urgent'. This is a move away from the 'traditional' physiotherapy service whereby the ED team refers patients to an outpatient physiotherapy service sometimes resulting in significant delays. Internationally, there is no agreed consensus on the role or value of ED-based physiotherapists.
aimThe objective of this review was to retrieve, critically appraise and synthesise the evidence from studies relating to patients' and healthcare professionals' experiences and/or perceptions of physiotherapy services in the ED.
methodThis is a systematic review (SR) synthesising qualitative studies, which have considered patients' (population 1) and healthcare professionals' (population 2) experiences and/or perceptions (outcomes) of ED physiotherapy services (exposure). A comprehensive systematic search, limited to English language articles, was undertaken on seven electronic medical databases (Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, BNI, PubMed and PEDro) for the period January 2006 to October 2016. Grey literature was identified using Google Scholar, reference lists and website searching. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) qualitative checklist was used to appraise all included studies. All studies were data extracted and quality appraised by two reviewers to enhance rigour and reduce bias.
resultsA total of 2163 studies were screened, 10 received full-text review and 7 studies were included in the final review. Six of the studies originated in Australia and one from the USA. The themes that emerged were as follows: Patients and healthcare professionals view ED-based physiotherapists as having (1) expert clinical skills and (2) an educational role. There is role confusion and lack of integration of the ED-based physiotherapist within the ED team.
conclusionThis review adds an in-depth human perspective to the current ED physiotherapy literature, which provides insight into how ED healthcare services and physiotherapy services specifically should be developed and delivered in the future. The knowledge from this review has implications for future education programmes, as well as development of both new care pathways and physiotherapy clinical roles. Research into ED-based physiotherapy services is predominantly quantitative. Despite the newness of the ED physiotherapy role, this review reveals that the provision of physiotherapists within EDs contributes value to both patients and staff. However, the dominance of Australian research means it is uncertain how it translates to the UK or elsewhere. There needs to be further UK-based research.
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Registered trials
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