Abstract:

Background:
In Poland at present, Physiotherapy is offered at three types of school: 1) medical universities (PM), 2)universities of physical education (PWF), and 3) schools not specialising in either the medical sciences or physical education (IP). Graduation from a Bachelor's degree course with a Bachelor's degree in Physiotherapy makes it possible to take on employment as a physiotherapist. However, a majority of students continue their education on a Master's degree course and simultaneously work either as a physiotherapist or in another profession. Bachelor's degree graduates may continue their education at a university-level school of a different educational profile than the one they graduated from.

Aim of study:
The aim of the study was to analyse the choice of profile of further postgraduate education on a Master's degree course among Physiotherapy graduates with a Bachelor's degree in Poland.

Materials and Methods:
The study enrolled 1942 second-year students of a Master's degree course of 17 university-level schools (PM: 8, PWF: 4, IP: 5). A mean questionnaire return rate was: 53%. Women constituted 77% of the study participants, the mean age was 21 years (SD=10.64; min. 23; max. 50). As many as 736 (45%) of the study participants started a Master's degree course at the same university-level school at which they had graduated from a Bachelor's degree course. The study was conducted within the International Research Project "The formative effect of the course of physiotherapy studies on the occupational attitudes of students” (www.projekt-fizjoterapia.wum.edu.pl). The approval of the Ethical Review Board of Warsaw Medical University was not necessary to conduct the voluntary and anonymous questionnaire study.

Results:
Among the study participants, the majority of students of university-level schools of all educational profiles (medical universities, universities of physical education, and schools not specializing in either the medical sciences or physical education) continued their education at the same university-level school which they had graduated from with a Bachelor's degree in Physiotherapy (55% of PM students, 30% of PWF students, and 62% of IP students). Moreover, among the study group, IP Bachelor's degree graduates were those who chose a different educational profile most often (60% of IP graduates continued their education at universities of physical education and 36% of IP graduates chose medical universities).

Conclusions:
1. Bachelor's degree graduates in Physiotherapy are not willing to change the profile of their further physiotherapy education and they continue to study at the same university-level school which they graduated from with a Bachelor's degree. Therefore, they do not broaden their knowledge of physiotherapy, which could be done via a different educational profile.
2. IP Bachelor's degree graduates more often choose universities of physical education than medical universities, which might be surprising particularly in respect of the opinion expressed by this group of students that physiotherapy is more associated with medicine than physical education.
3. Since the Polish system of education of physiotherapists is specific (trainings are offered at universities of different educational profiles), students should be made aware of the fact that they may take advantage of changing the educational profile after obtaining a Bachelor's degree.

Keywords:

Physiotherapy, graduates, postgraduate education, educational profile.