Premium
How did the Canterbury Earthquakes Affect Physiotherapists and Physiotherapy Services? A Qualitative Study
Author(s) -
Mulligan Hilda,
Smith Catherine M.,
Ferdinand Sandy
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physiotherapy research international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.509
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1471-2865
pISSN - 1358-2267
DOI - 10.1002/pri.1597
Subject(s) - feeling , rehabilitation , affect (linguistics) , active listening , psychological resilience , qualitative research , medicine , theme (computing) , nursing , isolation (microbiology) , psychology , medical education , applied psychology , physical therapy , social psychology , sociology , social science , communication , computer science , operating system , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Background and purpose The recent earthquakes in Canterbury New Zealand ended lives and resulted in disruption to many aspect of life for survivors, including physiotherapists. Physiotherapists often volunteer vital rehabilitation services in the wake of global disasters; however, little is known about how physiotherapists cope with disasters that affect their own communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Canterbury earthquakes affected physiotherapists and physiotherapy services. Methods We use a General Inductive Approach to analyse data obtained from purposively sampled physiotherapists or physiotherapy managers in the Canterbury region. Interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Results We analysed data from interviews with 27 female and six male participants. We identified four themes: ‘A life‐changing earthquake’ that described how both immediate and on‐going events led to our second theme ‘Uncertainty‘. Uncertainty eroded feelings of resilience, but this was tempered by our third theme ‘Giving and receiving support’. Throughout these three themes, we identified a further theme ‘Being a physiotherapist’. This theme explains how physiotherapists and physiotherapy services were and still are affected by the Canterbury earthquakes. Discussion We recommend that disaster planning occurs at individual, departmental, practice and professional levels. This planning will enable physiotherapists to better cope in the event of a disaster and would help to provide professional bodies with a cohesive set of skills that can be shared with health agencies and rescue organizations. We recommend that the apparently vital skill of listening is explored through further research in order for it to be better accepted as a core physiotherapy skill. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.