Browsing by Author "Talberg, Heather"

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    A clinical educator’s guide to understanding and facilitating the clinical reasoning process
    (2017) Talberg, Heather; Camroodien-Surve, Fatemah
    Developing Clinical Reasoning is an important part of the training of Undergraduate Health and Rehabilitation students. However, a lack of consensus amongst Educators on how to facilitate this, often hampers student progress. This booklet was designed to give Clinical Educators a brief overview on strategies to assist students in developing Clinical Reasoning. Based on the ‘Making thinking Visible’ approach, it guides Clinical Educators in how to make their own reasoning processes more explicit to students, so that they can learn from their more expert thinking practices.
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    Investigating professional identity in undergraduate physiotherapy education
    (2012) Talberg, Heather
    Clinical practice remains an integral part of the training of physiotherapy students. It is seen as an effective way of socialising students into the profession. By placing students in a clinical setting where under the guidance of clinicians and clinical educators, they are able to put their classroom taught procedures into practice it is believed that they then start to develop an understanding of what being a physiotherapist entails. Drawing on Lave and Wenger's model of situated learning, this research sets out to understand how final year physiotherapy students begin to develop their identity as physiotherapists. The research looks at the positioning of students within specific communities of practice and the nature of the learning that occurs within these communities.
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    The relationship between leisure time physical activity and health-related fitness : a single-blinded study
    (2013) Beutel, Anita; Burgess, Theresa; Talberg, Heather
    Mature adults are at risk of an accelerated age-related reduction in physical function. Declines in aerobic power, functional strength, motor abilities, flexibility and health-related quality of life are thought to be primarily due to reduced physical activity levels with increasing age. Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) has been extensively investigated and is widely advocated for the preservation of function with ageing. However there is a lack of evidence regarding the relationship between LTPA and the individual components of health-related fitness, particularly motor abilities. It is therefore unclear what types of LTPA (endurance, neuromuscular LTPA or games) should be prescribed by health professionals for the development of health-related fitness parameters. Aim: To examine the relationship between LTPA and components of health-related fitness in healthy mature adults. Specific Objectives: (a) To describe the preferred mode(s) and weekly duration of recent LTPA in currently active male and female participants. (b) To describe the preferred mode(s) and years of participation in long term LTPA, in currently active and inactive male and female participants. (c) To determine if there were significant differences in anthropometry and selected health-related fitness components, in currently active and inactive male and female participants. (d) To determine the relationships between recent participation in different types of LTPA (endurance, neuromuscular or games) and total weekly duration of LTPA; and anthropometry and selected components of health related fitness in currently active male and female participants. (e) To determine the relationships between former participation in different types of LTPA (endurance, neuromuscular or games) and years of LTPA participation; and anthropometry and selected components of health-related fitness in currently active and inactive male and female participants. Methods: This study had a descriptive, correlational design. Healthy adults aged between 40 and 60 who either participated in regular LTPA or no LTPA, were recruited for the study. Participants were excluded if they had any acute or chronic injuries; or used any medication that altered heart rate or physical function. Fifty six healthy mature adults between the ages of 40 and 58 years participated in this study. Twenty nine had participated in at least 30 minutes of LTPA, three times per week in the last three months (active group); and twenty seven had not participated in LTPA in the last three months (inactive group). Data were collected in two sessions. In session one, participants gave written informed consent; completed a physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q) to screen for safe exercise participation; and completed health-related quality of life and LTPA questionnaires. Body composition measurements were also performed. In session two, participants completed a battery of physical tests conducted by a blinded assessor, including: cardiorespiratory fitness (2 km walk test); static and dynamic balance (standing on one leg, tandem walking backwards); agility (Illinois agility test); co-ordination (timed bouncing of a ball along a wall from a fixed distance); upper limb function (modified push-up test); lower limb function (vertical jump test); back muscle endurance (static back extension test); and flexibility (sit-and-reach test).Results: Recently active participants had significantly reduced body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.04), body fat percentage (p = 0.003) and sum of seven skinfold (p = 0.004) measurements, compared to inactive participants. In addition, active participants scored significantly better in the tests for cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.0004) and upper limb function (p = 0.01) than inactive participants. Active females had significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.0002) and agility (p = 0.0004) compared to inactive females. Of the health-related fitness components, only cardiorespiratory fitness and back muscle endurance were related to recent LTPA participation. Motor abilities such as agility and dynamic balance, upper- and lower limb function were associated with long term rather than recent LTPA, particularly with long term endurance, games and years of long term LTPA participation. Discussion and conclusion: Active participants had significantly improved body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness and upper limb function compared to inactive participants in this study. These results support previous research suggesting that regular participation in LTPA may help to slow the age-associated decline in physical function. However no significant differences were found in motor abilities between recently active and inactive participants, and no significant relationships were found between recent LTPA participation and motor abilities. Based on the findings in this study, long term LTPA and participation in games are advised for the development of motor abilities and functional strength, in healthy mature adults. As this study sample reported mainly endurance LTPA recently and on the long term, future research should aim to explore the independent contributions of different types of LTPA (endurance, neuromuscular or games) on aspects of health related fitness. Such information may be very useful clinically to improve the accuracy of exercise prescription. There is also a need to further evaluate the relationship between long-term LTPA and health-related fitness in a larger sample of mature adults.
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    The use of telerehabilitation in physiotherapy inlower-middle income countries: a scoping review
    (2025) Muula, Thumbe; Talberg, Heather; Burgess, Theresa
    Introduction: Health systems in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often have limited access to rehabilitation services. Telerehabilitation (TR) has the potential to be an alternative or adjunct to rehabilitation services in underserved communities in LMICs and can also assist with continuation of care to patients with chronic conditions or injuries requiring ongoing rehabilitation. The aim of this scoping review was to explore the use of TR in physiotherapy in LMICs. Objectives: The specific objectives of the scoping review were to: describe the range of impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions, and disease or health conditions that are being addressed using TR by physiotherapists in LMICs, describe the nature, mode of delivery, and outcomes of TR interventions used by physiotherapists for patient care in LMICs, and explore the perceived benefits, facilitators, and barriers associated with the implementation and use of TR by physiotherapists in LMICs. Methods: The PRISMA-ScR guideline for reporting was used in the scoping review. Literature focussing on the use of TR in LMICs were extracted from EBSCOhost, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. Full-text articles included in the review were published in English between 2000 to 2024. Literature reviews, editorials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and single case studies were excluded from the study. Results: Twenty-six articles were included in the review. Most of these studies focused on musculoskeletal or neurological conditions, with a smaller number of studies involving COVID-19, cardiorespiratory conditions, and diseases of lifestyle. Telerehabilitation was mostly used to address impairments including pain, muscle weakness, anxiety, depression, and fatigue, with little reporting on the impact on activity levels and participation restrictions. The mode of TR varied and primarily involved videoconferences followed by phone calls, with some studies also reporting recorded videos of exercises and messaging. The nature of TR only included treatment in most studies, with three studies including both treatment and assessment. Conclusion: Telerehabilitation is a potentially viable alternative or adjunct to expand access to rehabilitation in LMICs to help address the burden of disease where access to rehabilitation services is limited. The results from the scoping review show that TR is feasible and effective in physiotherapy to provide rehabilitation in LMICs. While most literature has considered the impact on impairments, successful implementation of TR would need to investigate the impact on activity levels and participation restrictions in these populations. The barriers to the use of TR in LMICs should be addressed by promoting technology literacy through training and installing modern TR infrastructure or using low bandwidth technologies to reduce slow internet connections during TR sessions. Future research should be conducted that includes a larger pool of data to investigate the value and feasibility of the use of TR in physiotherapy in LMICs. The adoption of TR use in the field of physiotherapy should be encouraged with the findings from this review supporting its feasibility and value in promoting access to rehabilitation.