PHYT8002 Performance of Movement and Function

In this topic students will gain knowledge of common orthopaedic conditions as they relate to physiotherapy practice. Clinical case studies will be used to integrate knowledge of the disease process and enhance clinical reasoning for treatment interventions. Physiotherapy rehabilitation skills will include acute care management, soft tissue massage, gait re-education using walking aids, manual handling and exercise therapy. Students will learn to apply interventions in an evidence-based manner.

The aim of the Master of Physiotherapy is to prepare students to register and practice as physiotherapists in Australia. This topic aims to teach the physiotherapy management of orthopaedic conditions in a biopsychosocial context. The one-week foundation placement aims to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate and practice basic skills with the guidance of their clinical supervisor and enable students to apply and develop their learning as professional and ethical communicators and collaborators in a health care team.

1. Demonstrate knowledge and safe skills related to manual handling tasks for physiotherapists, including work health and safety obligations and management of their own physical health
2. Assess and prescribe walking aids to assist gait and re-educate gait patterns
3. Demonstrate the safe and effective application of physiotherapy skills to aid the physical function of people with common orthopaedic conditions
4. Demonstrate knowledge of the physiotherapy assessment and management of people with acute orthopaedic conditions
5. Use critical thinking to select and plan evidence-based physiotherapy interventions in consultation with the client that aids movement and physical function following orthopaedic procedures, by building on knowledge of pain science, musculoskeletal anatomy and tissue injury/healing physiology
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the role and evidence base for physiotherapy within collaborative health care teams, as applied to the care of people with orthopaedic conditions across the health care system
7. Demonstrate understanding of professionalism, and ethical physiotherapy practice, including the responsive adaptation of principles in the clinical setting with cultural sensitivity
8. Demonstrate the principles of professional communication as applied to clinically based scenarios that require written, verbal and non-verbal strategies. Begin to adapt these in practice
9. Begin to collect information from clients and other relevant sources to plan management that, reflects both client responses and own competence, seeking inter-professional support in a timely manner