DIGITAL LIBRARY
USE OF PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINICAL GUIDELINES AS ELECTRONIC RESOURCES IN PHYSIOTHERAPY DEGREE: SATISFACTION ON LEARNING IMPROVEMENTS
1 Universidad de Sevilla (SPAIN)
2 Universidad de Cádiz (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: INTED2016 Proceedings
Publication year: 2016
Pages: 7847-7850
ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7
ISSN: 2340-1079
doi: 10.21125/inted.2016.0849
Conference name: 10th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 7-9 March, 2016
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
Electronic resources of the Library of Health Sciences at the Spanish University are becoming one of the main demands of not yet graduate and postgraduate students of all degrees of Health. Within electronic resources, perhaps one of the least known are guides Health Sciences, as clinical practice guidelines are essential documents to know the scientific evidence in different areas. Specifically, in Physiotherapy, Clinical Practice Guidelines are indispensable tools that professionals, but also students, need to know as trendsetters of action in different physiotherapy treatments of different pathologies, about preventing diseases and promoting health. However, other electronic resources, especially those related to the search and location of scientific articles have greater relevance.

The main objective of this study is to present the " Physiotherapy Clinical Guides" section in the Library of Health Sciences at University of Seville among students of Physiotherapy ,to integrate academic use of this section in the teaching programs in subjects as Fundamentals of Physiotherapy, General Physiotherapy , Physiotherapy in Pediatrics, Research Methodology and neuro-musculoskeletal dysfunction and eventually, to make an assessment of the degree of satisfaction that involves the use of these guidelines for student learning .

Descriptive, observational and transversal study from February 2015 to July 2015. Sample of 213 students (consisted of 177 women, 36 men; Middle aged 19.5) of the degree in physiotherapy (convenience sampling) enrolled in different subjects between first and fourth year of the Degree in Physiotherapy. First, a discussion group was conducted to disseminate this section of the Library (http://guiasbus.us.es/salud/fisioterapia). Second, the teaching strategy was proposed to integrate the previous program with students consent and finally, a satisfaction survey was conducted.The measuring instrument was a Lickert questionnaire of 30 items valued from 0 to 5, where 0 is "totally disagree" and 5 is "totally agree".

The main results provided that more than 60% of the sample "agree" or "completely agree" in considering the use of clinical guidelines in physiotherapy, because they perceived that guidelines provide valid and reliable information (77%), the guidelines provide a better understanding of the most relevant physiotherapy approaches (56%), which are a benchmark for integration in different professional fields of physiotherapy and that they are considered able to participate in strategies improvement (51%). Students from third and fourth courses can see an instrument in these guidelines to more closely meet the professional reality from the Evidence-Based Physiotherapy; however, students from first and second courses consider these guidelines as positive tool in comparing with other electronic resources such as blogs and e-learning platforms.

As a conclusion, we can say that physiotherapy students are very receptive to the use of clinical guidelines in their teaching-learning process, being able to identify positive and negative aspects in their use. They emphasize that clinical guidelines are a way to make their first contact with the profesional practices, knowing the real health problems of the population, the most relevant clinical approaches and social problems which will provide employment for them in the future.
Keywords:
Clinical guidelines, European higher education, innovation, physiotherapist, e-learning.