Additional knowledge and skills acquired at the end of the training course.
At the end of the training programme, the physiotherapist must acquire knowledge (knowing), skills (knowing how to do) and interpersonal skills (knowing how to be) with particular reference to the following fields:
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: an area that translates the Physiotherapist professional's assumption of responsibility in all professional action through the achievement of the following competences assuming a constant commitment to the wellbeing of the person respecting the citizen and the community, cultural sensitivity and the autonomy of the individual, with a person-centred approach, committing oneself to maintaining a professional conduct that, in compliance with the code of ethics and the regulations in force, protects the profession and its image and maintains the transparency of interpersonal relations and areas of intervention, with reference to the instances that derive from the code of ethics and the regulations in force (D.L.42/99 - D.L. 251/00 - DL. 43/06).
CARE AND REHABILITATION: this area of competence refers to the application of the physiotherapeutic process for which the student will have to: collect, analyse and interpret data significant for the needs of the person assisted, be able to correctly perform the functional assessment, formulate the physiotherapy diagnosis (functional diagnosis) and define objectives and prognostic hypotheses on the basis of the functional diagnosis, taking into account not only the extent of the impairment, but above all the recovery indices (recovery potential); plan and implement the treatment and rehabilitation intervention aimed at specific functional outcomes through an approach based on the centrality of the person implementing the intervention in a safe and effective manner, making any changes to the treatment ongoing plan; evaluating the result of the implementation of the treatment plan, verifying the overall effectiveness on the basis of the outcomes of the re-evaluations and feedback resulting from the implementation of the specific intervention; providing specific technical advice to the person assisted, to other professionals, to other subjects (e.g. institutions) for environmental adaptations, movement techniques or other.
THERAPEUTIC EDUCATION: is a health activity aimed at developing in the person or group, awareness, responsibility and skills related to the concept of disability and its treatment, adaptation and self-management, and is an integral part of the rehabilitation programme.
PREVENTION: the physiotherapist must be able to carry out preventive activities with regard to individuals and the community, in health or with problems and disabilities, due to physical and/or mental condition; he/she will promote the actions necessary to maintain health with particular attention to ergonomic principles, advice on lifestyle, motivating the person to be responsible and actively cooperate to promote his/her physical and social well-being. In particular, this area involves the commitment to activities aimed at recognising and overcoming situations that are potentially harmful to the individual and the community, through: the identification of health needs and the prevention of disability the promotion of actions necessary to maintain health and overcome disability, the prevention of further aggravation of disability.
MANAGEMENT: including all the management tools (resources, information, economic aspects) indispensable for the correct implementation of the physiotherapist's daily activities, through the following actions: acting according to quality criteria using appropriate tools, managing privacy, managing clinical risk, taking decisions after having implemented a correct problem-solving process; these assumptions are valid both in the freelance context and within the services of varying complexity in which the physiotherapist will work: competence requires knowledge and skills in ethics, legislation, management skills, social skills, interprofessional cooperation and in networking, planning, organisation and articulation of treatment programmes. This includes all the procedures and tools that enable the future professional to organise his or her work in the overall sense of the term.
TRAINING/AUTOFORMATION: is the context in which the physiotherapist trains, develops and consolidates his/her cultural foundations, through the following competences: formulating training programmes after having carried out adequate self-assessment, taking responsibility for his/her own training, reflecting on his/her own professional practice with the aim of learning.
EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE/RESEARCH: the international scientific community and the health 'government' in Italy (see e.g. the National Health Plan), in proposing Evidence-Based Health Care and Clinical Governance, affirm the need for health professionals to base their practice also on evidence, with a view to providing an effective, useful and economically sustainable service. The EBP, defined in international references as 'the integration of the best available valid and relevant research, with the practitioner's clinical experience and the values and condition of the individual patient' enables the practitioner not only to offer the best 'practice' but also to engage with the international professional community. For this reason, the graduate is required to perceive the 'need for information', in order to satisfy the knowledge gaps emerging from the encounter with the care recipient; to convert this need into well-defined clinical and care questions; to assess the 'decision-making weight' of this evidence in the clinical decision, taking into account both the preferences and expectations of the care recipient and the social, organisational and economic context in which he/she operates. Therapeutic intervention according to EBP will enable the graduate to efficiently find the best available evidence in the literature and to critically interpret it in its internal and external validity.
COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIP: it represents, in the case of health professionals and not only, the primary dimension of man's social life, and the vehicle through which to establish the relationship with the assisted person with particular reference to his or her care; furthermore, communication plays a fundamental role in relations with other professionals, with the family and care - givers.
Communication and interpersonal skills are therefore fully considered attributes of the health professional's professional competence. This area defines the relational sub-layer through which the graduate physiotherapist will apply his or her professional practice in the overall context, through: communication and construction of a fruitful relationship with the persons assisted and caregivers; communication and construction of a constructive inter-professional collaboration; negotiation and management of interpersonal conflicts.