Abstract:

The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) put the whole society in a new situation that reveals the challenges of remotely work. Although in 2019 World Confederation for Physical Therapy released the report of the digital physical therapy that promotes the effective provision of treatment there are still contradictory evidences of the effectiveness of telerehabilitation in physiotherapy. The research aim was to assess physiotherapists’ experience and opinions on delivering physiotherapy as telerehabilitation services. An online survey was completed by 77 Latvian physiotherapists. The research was conducted after the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2021 using a mixed quantitative and qualitative data research design. Almost half of the respondents reported that they did not use the remote practical sessions with the clients. A third of the physiotherapists reported feeling challenged and extremely challenged by working remotely and concerned about the effectiveness of treatment. The main problem was reported as the inconvenient environment and limited view of the client. The main risk was mentioned that clients do not perform the therapeutic exercises with proper technique. More than half of the respondents indicated that remote work could not be the main treatment service in the future. Despite many opportunities and technological possibilities of remote work, the telerehabilitation service seems still has to be improved for use in daily practice in a pandemic situation.

Keywords:

Coronavirus-pandemic, remote challenges, physiotherapy, survey, telerehabilitation.