This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Stachura, K. Articles by Garven, F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Stachura, K. Articles by Garven, F. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Disabilities Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A national survey of occupational therapy students' and physiotherapy students' attitudes to disabled people

School of Health and Social Care, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, k.stachura{at}gcal.ac.uk

Frances Garven

Lecturer School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Objective : To investigate the possible influence of curricular and non-curricular activities on the attitudes of occupational therapy and physiotherapy students towards disabled people at the beginning and end of their pre-registration education.

Design : A cross-sectional survey.

Setting : United Kingdom.

Participants : Two thousand two hundred and ninety-nine students.

Main outcome measures : Interaction with Disabled Persons' Scale.

Results : Occupational therapy and physiotherapy programmes attract different types of student. Occupational therapy students' attitudes to disabled people were significantly more positive than those of physiotherapy students at the beginning (P < 0.0001) and end (P < 0.0001) of their respective programmes. Students with disabled family members (P < 0.0001) and informal social contact with disabled people (P < 0.0001) had significantly more positive attitudes than those without such contact, and such students tend to choose occupational therapy as a career. Work experience with disabled people did not significantly influence the attitudes towards disabled people of occupational therapy students at the end of their programme (P = 0.187) but did for all other students. A significantly higher proportion of occupational therapy students undertake extracurricular employment and socialize with disabled people than their physiotherapy counterparts.

Conclusion : Physiotherapy students hold less positive attitudes to disabled people than occupational therapy students at both the beginning and end of their pre-registration education. Physiotherapy educators need to give greater credit for work experience with disabled people and to ensure the provision of appropriate disability training to counteract possible overemphasis on physical impairments in the curricula.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 21, No. 5, 442-449 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0269215507073495


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?