Physiotherapy contributions to Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What are the skills, expertise and assessment tools physiotherapists use when assessing frail older people as part of a model of care called Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment?
IRAS ID
151957
Contact name
Wendy Walker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Research summary
The aim of this qualitative study is to establish what skills, expertise and tools are used by physiotherapists when delivering the physiotherapy component of ’Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment’ (CGA). CGA is a model of care employed by a team of clinicians, normally a consultant geriatrician, nurse, physiotherapist and occupational therapist, to assess, identify and manage health and social needs of older patients. Frail older patients account for the majority of emergency and planned admissions to hospitals across the developed world. CGA is widely accepted as the gold standard of care and has been researched in acute pathways. However the research to date has not consistently described what individual clinicians, or healthcare disciplines, contribute to the process. The aim of this study is to understand and describe physiotherapy contributions to CGA in sufficient detail to enable clinicians to consistently deliver high quality care and for CGA to be researched in novel settings. It is anticipated that this will lead to improved outcomes for patients, more efficient allocation of resources and training and for services to be responsive to patient needs.
Three senior physiotherapists will be observed, each carrying out two clinical assessments on older patients within inpatient and outpatient areas of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. This will be followed by semi-structured interviews with the physiotherapists to develop a further understanding into why they chose the techniques and assessments employed and what they see as their broader role within CGA.REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/0273
Date of REC Opinion
6 May 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion