The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of physiotherapy and chiropractic students regarding each others' professional practice

Introduction: The roles of physiotherapists and chiropractors demonstrate some overlap. Both are members of a multidisciplinary team and contribute to the holistic care of patients. Good understanding of each others' professional practice may lead to good working relationships with effective referrals, inter disciplinary and multidisciplinary management of patients. Purpose: To investigate the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of undergraduate physiotherapy and chiropractic students about each others' professional roles in clinical practice. Methodology: Data was obtained using a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. First and final-year physiotherapy (n = 72) and chiropractic students (n = 49) participated. Results: First and final year physiotherapy students scored 58% and 62% respectively in the "test" on chiropractic; chiropractic students scored 52% and 68% respectively in the test on physiotherapy. Seventy percent of the chiro practic and 14% of the physiotherapy students had visited the practice of other profession. Sixty seven percent of the chiropractic and 38% of the physiotherapy students found it was effective. Forty seven percent chiropractic and 80% physiotherapy students considered physiotherapy and chiropractic to be in direct competition. Sixty six percent of the chiropractic students and 49% of the physiotherapy students expressed the intention of working together with the other profession. Discussion: The reason for the possible feelings of competitiveness could be because in South Africa there is vast overlap of practice in both professions; Physiotherapists and chiropractors are seen to use modalities that are similar. This may be viewed as an indication of the importance in defining the roles, scope and characteristics of both physiotherapy and chiropractic. Conclusion: The knowledge of the physiotherapy and chiropractic students is equal, however, chiropractic students have more positive perceptions and attitudes towards physiotherapy than physiotherapy students have of chiropractic.