Exploring Entry-to-Practice Pelvic Health Physiotherapy Education in Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Pelvic health physiotherapy (PHPT) is a sensitive and emerging area of practice that offers effective treatment for common and burdensome pelvic health conditions such as urinary incontinence. However, curriculum guidelines provide limited guidance for incorporating PHPT content in Canadian entry-to-practice programs. This doctoral dissertation addresses that gap with three studies aimed at (1) exploring the education and practice experiences of pelvic health physiotherapists in Canada; (2) identifying what academic PHPT content entry-to-practice programs deliver and where they incorporate it; and (3) describing the decision-making and implementation processes involved in incorporating PHPT content. Study 1 was an interview- based descriptive qualitative study of 20 pelvic health physiotherapists. Findings showed that holistic PHPT practice involves communicating sensitive topics, and broadening the lens of pelvic health through orthopedic, biopsychosocial, and trauma-informed approaches. Participants reported receiving little training in their entry-to-practice education, and therefore relied on continuing education, mentorship and clinical experience to develop competence. Study 2 was an online survey that included 10 of the 15 Canadian entry-to-practice programs. Results indicated that programs often covered more PHPT content than recommended in curriculum guidelines in required and elective courses. However, the extent to which programs covered content varied. All of the programs covered content such as musculoskeletal-related conditions, subjective assessment, and clinical reasoning. Three programs also taught internal pelvic floor techniques in an elective course. Study 3 was a descriptive qualitative study that included interviews with 17 curriculum decision-makers representing nine Canadian entry-to-practice programs. Participants described that they prioritized meeting national curricular standards, but that PHPT expertise was essential in choosing and delivering PHPT content in the academic curriculum. Multiple content, individual, program, professional, and societal-level factors, however, influenced how programs integrated PHPT content in the curriculum. Thesis findings contribute to our understanding of current entry-to-practice PHPT training in Canada, and can be used to inform future work to standardize PHPT content delivered in entry-to-practice curricula. Standardizing PHPT education will help to promote the delivery of inclusive and high-quality care to patients with pelvic health conditions.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.017 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.005 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".