Clinical Reasoning Process of Physiotherapists When Observing Hemiplegic Gait

Clinical Reasoning Process of Physiotherapists When Observing Hemiplegic Gait

The goal of this study is to find out what clinical reasoning process physiotherapists undergo when observing hemiplegic patients gait.

Physiotherapists don't usually use any assessments to evaluate gait but observe it without an instrument. The questions in this study are:

• what abnormalities can physiotherapists detect when observing a patient walking?
• what do they consider the main problem that has a negative effect on the patient's walking?
• what hypothesis do they generate?
• how is the inter-rater reliability for the "main problem" and the hypothesis?

Inclusion criteria:

• chartered physiotherapists
• physiotherapists in training
• working with stroke patients

Exclusion criteria:

- other languages than German