Editor's comment: a question of research

But research doesn’t need to be carried out in the ivory towers of academia. There’s no reason why physios working in a clinical setting shouldn’t undertake their own research to demonstrate the value of their services (or, indeed, to show that their service needs extra money to be improved).

 

As Gabrielle Rankin writes in our Advice line, the CSP has identified the top 10 priorities for CSP-funded research from now on. The one theme that underpins all those factors is the patient’s experience. 

 

It’s no longer good enough just to know that the range of movement in an elbow joint, for example, has increased by 10 per cent. What the person on the receiving end of your physiotherapy wants to know is whether they can make a cup of tea without any help.

 

I hope you’ll find some interesting examples in this issue of what good practice can look like: physios tackling winter pressures in A&E; providing prehab for patients with cancer who are about to have an operation; and CSP’s own hip sprint audit.

 

Meanwhile, you can be part of the cutting edge of physiotherapy practice by attending the CSP’s annual conference, held in Birmingham from 19-20 October. At just £99 for two days it pays to book early as the price goes up on 1 August. And who knows, maybe you’ll be submitting a poster abstract there too? But be quick, the deadline for submissions is 20 April.