Decision-making in Musculoskeletal Clinical Practice

This will be the fourth and final part of the Physiotherapist's Tool Box series. Together with Fox and Day/'Common Musculoskeletal Pathologies' it makes up the level 3 part of the series. There are approx 3000 level 3 physio students pa in the UK.

With increasing litigation and awareness of accountability within the healthcare environment, clear reasoned judgements are essential. As an autonomous practitioner, the therapist needs to be able to clearly explain their understanding of their assessment findings and treatment choices. Clinical reasoning underpins the decisions made on a day to day basis in patient assessment, treatment and management.

Currently existing publications acknowledge the importance and describe the abstract concepts associated with clinical reasoning. However, they often fail to provide tools to enable the student to combine the actual integration of reasoning into practice. Currently, students find the concepts of reasoning difficult to recognise and apply within academic study and clinical practice, yet it is an essential part of their course and a skill which they must acquire in order to qualify.

By focussing on the actual decisions students will be faced with in the clinic, rather than abstract theory or hypothetical case studies, the authors are able to present clinical reasoning theory to students in a way that they can relate to and apply in practice.