| dc.description.abstract | It is reported in several studies that physical therapy is a profession with high prevalence
of Repetitive strain injury and Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (RSI-WRMD).
The first contact between the physical therapist and the RSI-WRMD risk factors occurs
throughout their lives, but during their training, when still a student of Physiotherapist,
this exposure to risk remains, without due precautions, in an environment that should
worry about preventing. During the professional learning phase, the students adopt
constant forced postures and biomechanical efforts, transfer and manual elevation of
patients, sudden efforts, among others, generating discomforts, pain and musculoskeletal
injuries. An injury in therapist can force him to have to work with pain, to have to change
the operative ways of work, to restrict the variety of clinical conduct and, consequently,
to anticipate the interruption of the professional career. This research aims the formation
of university students of Physiotherapy, who perform professional internship and to
elaborate guidelines to prevent RSI-WRMDs. Ergonomic Analysis of Work was taken as
a methodological reference. For that, the documentary analyzes related to the Political
Pedagogical Project of the Course of Physiotherapy, the curriculum grid, the course plan
and the discipline's agenda were searched for evidence of policies, guidelines and forecast
of approaches to contents and of professional practices related to the prevention of RSIWRMD. Also conducted interviews with the students, teachers and course coordinator,
and audio-visual records of the student in attendance and the infrastructure of the places
of attendance. It was verified that the Pedagogical Project of the course in focus had the
discipline of Worker's Health only formally and did not find, in Political Pedagogical
Project of the Course, no programmatic content related to the prevention of RSI-WRMD
and the self-care directed to occupational health of the students themselves. The students
reported that did not receive any specific classes of RSI-WRMD prevention, self-care,
ergonomics, occupational health and safety, or related subjects. However, the self-care
guidelines they received from teachers were diluted in some disciplines. The guidelines
that the students reported receiving in these disciplines consisted of: correcting stretcher
height, using a better force lever, being careful in bending and spinal rotation and to have
careful in handling loads. Students gained knowledge of RSI-WRMD prevention only for
the patient and spontaneously realized that they could transfer this knowledge, acquired
in another context, in the management of their self-care. However, most of the students
interviewed claimed that they could not implement the RSI-WRMD prevention
guidelines, because of the burden of study and fatigue after care. The specialty of the
professional stage, cited by the students interviewed, in which they presented the greatest
complaint of pain, was that of neurology, mainly because of the transfer actions, from one
place to another, of dependent and heavy patients. These actions are oftentimes
individually made and without mechanical assistance. No RSI-WRMD-prevention
guidelines or programmatic content were given by the teachers to the students during the
internships. It was also found that there is a high incidence of reports of pain among senior
students of physical therapy and the lack of a RSI-WRMD-prevention plan can let the
students to reproduce pathogenic behaviors during the professional life, which
consequently leads them to injures or early incapacitate. Therefore, it is recommended
the periodic evaluation of the musculoskeletal system of the students, preventive clinical
actions and the inclusion of a specific discipline and/or cross-curricular content in all
disciplines, providing students with knowledge about the possible causes of the onset and
aggravation of RSI-WRMD, the importance of prevention and possible prevention
measures and the relationship of this approach with the efficiency of the
physiotherapeutic act and, consequently, with the treatment results of the patient treated
by the student. This allows the student in professional formation to act with better efficiency, health and safety, integrated. And that, in their professional life, this
knowledge and good practices be assimilated, thus avoiding a bad mirror effect inherited
from incomplete university education. | |
