The effects of changing undergraduate practitioner on patient progression and self-reported post-treatment reactions.
Item
- Title
- The effects of changing undergraduate practitioner on patient progression and self-reported post-treatment reactions.
- Author(s)
- Teale, A
- Abstract
- Background:- The General Osteopathic Council demands that osteopathic care be of high quality, safe and any risks communicated to the patients. Some osteopaths work in multi-practitioner clinics where the continuity of care for a patient may be compromised. This happens in both a postgraduate and an undergraduate scenario, where at any time a practitioner may be required to act as a locum. This research project has been designed to determine if changing practitioner compromises treatment outcome or increases risk of adverse events. Methods:- A questionnaire-based prospective cohort study was used. The questionnaire consisted of four sections relating to symptom type, location and severity and any additional symptoms along with their severity. The four sections were completed pre-treatment, at I day, 2 days and 7 days post-treatment respectively. The subjects were adult patients of the ESO clinic returning for continuing treatments.Resnlts:- 160 (34%) responses were received. At day 7 post-treatment, 66.5% (n=103) of patients reported a clinically significant improvement (30% or more) in pain. 62% (n-57) of patients treated by their primary practitioner and 73% (n=48) of patients treated by a locum had a significant decrease in pain. At day 7 post-treatment 59.9% (n=82) of patients reported a clinically significant improvement (30% or more) in stiffness. 61% (n=47) of patients treated by a primary practitioner and 58.3% (n-35) treated by a locum reported a significant improvement in stiffness. There were no significant differences in outcome measures of pain and stiffness between the primary and locum groups (P>0.05). No major adverse events were recorded in this study. Minor adverse events occurred in 45% of treatments; 43.2% when treated by a primary practitioner and 47.7% when treated by a locum. There were no significant differences between the adverse events in the test groups (P>0.05). Conclusion:- Changing practitioner may not be a popular practice with patients. Clinically there is no evidence that the patient is exposed to any additional risk. The quality of care administered is in keeping with the standards set out by the General Osteopathic Council. Osteopathic students, who have 3 years of training, have developed the necessary skills to cope with acting as a locum, without compromising patient safety. The outcome measures for a patient under osteopathic care is in keeping with recent published studies. The frequency of reported minor adverse events post-treatment is also in keeping with published research.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2014
- Date Submitted
- 20.1.2015 16:43:40
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 15532
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Teaching Clinic, Adverse events, Locum
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Teale, A, “The effects of changing undergraduate practitioner on patient progression and self-reported post-treatment reactions.”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 4, 2025, https://www.osteopathicresearch.org/s/orw/item/632