A structured workshop enhanced Physiotherapists’ skills in clinical decision-making: A pre-post study

CONTEXT: Effective clinical decision-making skills enhance the quality of patient care. Clinical reasoning and decision-making are fundamental aspects of best physiotherapy clinical practice. AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based structured educational workshop in enhancing physiotherapists’ clinical decision-making skills. SETTINGS AND DESIGNS: A pre-post design conducted in a medical college METHODS AND MATERIALS: A workshop protocol was developed based on the existing evidence and clinical practice guidelines. The workshop was advertised on the social media page of Nepal Physiotherapy association. On the first come first serve method; physiotherapists were selected. Those who met eligibility criteria were recruited for one of two workshops. Discussion was made on clinical scenarios aimed at enhancing clinical decision-making skills. Data were collected before and after the workshop using a self-administered clinical decision-making skills assessment tool to evaluate effectiveness of the workshop. Paired and unpaired t-tests were used to analyze within and between groups respectively. RESULTS: Significant improvement in clinical decision-making skills was found for all individual items (P < 0.001 in all items, effect size: 0.6 – 0.9), total EP score (P < 0.001, effect size: 0.8) and total clinical decision-making score (P < 0.001, effect size: 0.9). A significant difference was found between Bachelor and Master level education (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: An evidence-based structured educational workshop enhanced physiotherapists’ clinical decision-making skills. The findings of this study could be relevant to all health care professionals working in clinical practice. Larger studies with a control group are recommended to strengthen the findings of this study.