Oke Kayode I, Birabi Bridget N, Oghumu Saturday N

Oke Kayode I, Birabi Bridget N, Oghumu Saturday N – Physiotherapists’ Level of Involvement in Patterns of Acute Care Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy practice in Nigeria. FP 2015; 15(2); 110-118

Abstract

Background: Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy specialty is a developing practice in Nigeria and other West African countries and its specific patterns for its practice are yet to be established.This study therefore sets to explore and document the practice pattern of physiotherapy in acute cardiorespiratory care in Nigeria.
Material and Methods: A self designed well-structured and validated questionnaire was administered to 66 physiotherapists pooled from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.
Results:The results revealed that only 3 (5.3%) of the respondents specialized in cardiopulmonary physiotherapy, 32 (56.1%) were involved in intensive care unit (ICU) practice/coverage, 22 (38.6%) and 24 (42.1%) were involved in pre-operative and post-operative cardiac surgery rehabilitation management respectively. 32 (56.1%) of the respondents reported being on-call duty in the ICU with only 11 (19.3%) of them formed part of patients’ holistic care and discharge decision making process of acute or ICU patients in their practice settings.
Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that there is still a low level of utilization of physiotherapy in acute cardiorespiratory care practice in Nigeria, possibly resulting from availability of only few specialists. It is therefore concluded thatphysiotherapists need to develop specialist skills and expertise with regard to cardiorespiratory assessment and management of critically ill patients in this area.

Key words:
practice, patterns, cardiorespiratory care, physiotherapy

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