The effect of training on physical therapists' ability to apply specified forces of palpation

Background and purpose. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether postgraduate physical therapy students studying manipulation could learn to accurately produce specific forces during palpation of an intervertebral joint. Subjects. The 12 subjects (7 female, 5 male), aged26 to 36years (X=295, SD—2.9), had each completed a 4-year degree course in physical therapy and had worked between 3 and 10 years in clinical practice. All subjects were enrolled in a 12-month postgraduate manipulative therapy diploma course. Methods. Sub-jects in the experimental group (n—6) trained to apply specific forces of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kiloponds using bathroom scales. They practiced for 10 minutes per day for 30 days. Their ability to produce these forces on command was mea-sured using a force platform as they applied posteroanterior passive accessory intervertebral joint movements to the lumbar spine of the healthy subjects. This testing was done prior to training (pretest), immediately after training (posttest), and 1 month following cessation of training (retention test). The control group subjects (n—6) had no training with scales but were also students of the postgrad