Factors influencing study of physiotherapy and preferred choice of specialisation among final year physiotherapy students in Nigeria

Year 2020, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 102 - 108, 19.03.2020

Ayodeji Fabunmi , Babafemi Adebajo Theresa Akinola

https://doi.org/10.32322/jhsm.632717

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Introduction:
Over the years
increasing number of students are seeking admission to study Physiotherapy in
the universities leading to increased preference for specialisation as compared
with general practice. This aim of this study was to identify factors
influencing the study of physiotherapy and preferred choice of specialisation.

Material and Method: The research was a
cross-sectional survey involving final year physiotherapy students in three
training institutions in South-West, Nigeria. The questionnaire is in three sections
(section A sought responses on Socio-demographic characteristics, section B on factors
influencing the study of Physiotherapy and section C on preferred choice of
specialization). Content validation was carried out to eliminate ambiguity and
ensure that all items of the questionnaire are relevant and well understood. Descriptive
statistics of percentages, bar chart and mean was used to summarize data on
age, factors influencing study of physiotherapy, the level of influence of each
factor on preferred specialization areas of each participant and the factors
influencing the choice of specialization.

Result: There was a response rate of 72.2%
and mean age was 22.69±2.32 years. Out of the eight factors influencing study
of physiotherapy, ‘Desire to help people optimise their physical health and ‘Personal
interest’ had the greatest influence with mean scores of 3.24 and 3.18 respectively.
Ninety-eight participants (94.26%) were interested in pursuing postgraduate
specialization in Physiotherapy. Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal physiotherapy
is the most preferred specialization while Geriatrics is the least preferred
specialization. Male students have preference for Sports while female have
preference for Paediatric specialty.

Conclusion: Exposure to specialties in
Physiotherapy like Geriatrics and Cardio-pulmonary may help improve interest in
those areas and hence increased preference for those specialties.

Keywords

Physiotherapy Study, Choice of Specialisation, Physiotherapy students

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