Abstract:

Physiotherapy is a profession of public trust. Effective diagnosis and therapy require the physiotherapist to communicate well while respecting the patient's social, cultural, religious, and ethnic values. This means that a physiotherapist, in addition to the knowledge and ability to perform therapeutic techniques, should also have a wide range of soft skills that will allow them to conduct a medical history effectively, understandably explain to the patient what is happening to their body, what the purpose of the therapy is and how it will be carried out. The physiotherapist should also be able to motivate the patient to perform exercises and follow other recommendations systematically. Soft skills and communicative competence required of physiotherapists include the ability to control emotions and behavior and respect the patient's needs and rights. Such approach positively affects the patient's recovery process, sense of security, and trust that the therapy will bring the desired effects. According to students, soft skills are not trained satisfactorily during their studies. To meet the students’ needs, an international consortium of scientists from Finland, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Spain, and Turkey has created an online course in which students and practitioners can improve soft skills related to interpersonal and intercultural communication. These competencies are trained in 15 modules, which show how to diagnose and treat a specific disease or injury. Ways of dealing with the health issues are discussed, adding the specificity of each partner country's culture, tradition, and customs. The issues related to interpersonal communication discussed in the course include: sensitivity to gender identification, dealing with a demanding person, reading non-verbal signals, working with a shy or naughty preschool child, and talking to patients about a diagnosis that may be embarrassing for them (such as foot fungus). To assess the validity and relevance of the cultural issues discussed in the course, a survey was conducted among students in the country of the partner who is the project leader. Second-year physiotherapy students who had just completed their first internship were asked to rate their interest in the topics discussed in the course. A numeric rating scale from 1 to 10 was used. Focusing more on improving soft skills during university studies was rated very highly. The evaluation of the topics proposed in the course was significantly related to the experiences that students had during their internships. Respondents rated the issues they had to deal with while working with patients during their internships as the most useful. They considered the examination and manual therapy of a patient with obesity as difficult and worthy of training. They admitted that it would be difficult for them to communicate to the patient in a delicate and non-offensive way that due to the patient's excessive body weight, certain manual techniques cannot be performed. Another situation that students would like to train is communicating with a person with an intellectual disability. Students said they needed the least support in communicating about gender identity. They did not feel insecure about it. Our experience shows a great need for improving soft skills related to interpersonal communication including intercultural aspects.

Keywords:

Cross-cultural communication, physiotherapy, well-being, higher education.