Exploring physiotherapists' use of outcome measures in orthopaedic practice: a qualitative study.

Question: To explore physiotherapists' views and experiences of using outcome measures (OM) in orthopaedic practice. Design: A qualitative study, using in-depth telephone interviews, was adopted to gather physiotherapists' opinions, building on findings from a previous unpublished survey and the literature base. Participants: Six NHS physiotherapists, purposefully sampled from throughout Scotland, consented to take part in the study. Method: In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to collect primary data regarding the use of OMs in practice. The questions were developed using the results of an unpublished survey and published literature. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis to find codes and establish common themes throughout the interviews. Results: Participants concurred with previous research findings and seven main themes arose, three of which were emerging: Subjective and objective measures are equally valid; OMs aid clinical reasoning; they establish and show physiotherapy effectiveness; current barriers to OM use are identified; time is the foremost factor; what OMs to use and when are identified; more outcome measures should be used. Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight orthopaedic physiotherapists' views and experiences about using OMs in practice. Moreover, it complements previous research findings from other clinical areas and identifies issues where more high quality research is required, to establish if these findings can be generalised to all orthopaedic physiotherapists.bsc_Phyunpub2441_ethesesunpu