Early-career physiotherapists’ experiences of working with people with dementia: an exploratory phenomenological study [forthcoming]

Hennah, Molly and Miller, Paul K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-1354 (2025) Early-career physiotherapists’ experiences of working with people with dementia: an exploratory phenomenological study [forthcoming]. Physiotherapy Practice and Research . Item availability may be restricted.

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Abstract

Objectives: Most research in the healthcare professions relating to interpersonal work with individuals who have dementia addresses domains where the practitioner is actively trained for this task. Little research has, however, investigated clinical interaction between physiotherapists and those with dementia. Moreover, contemporary tertiary physiotherapy education has to date provided little pertinent preparatory curriculum content. This paper, thus, reports findings from a UK-based exploratory study of early-career physiotherapists’ lived experiences of managing clinical encounters with people with dementia.

Design: A qualitative investigative framework was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and investigated using the core conventions of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Participants: With institutional ethical approval, N=5 early-career physiotherapists were purposively recruited. Of these, n=4 were female and n=1 was male, with a minimum of one year of post-qualification experience and a maximum of four (mean = 1.8), and an age range of 23 to 33 years (mean = 25.6).

Results: Three superordinate themes emerged: (1) Confidence, communication and experience. (2) Family members and significant others’ involvement in the care. (3) The learning journey.

Conclusion and Implications: Participants indicated that while their physiotherapy education did little to prepare them for the realities of working with individuals with dementia, providing more ‘raw information’ about dementia syndromes would have had only limited utility. Training around the emotional costs, social contexts and interpersonal demands of the work were viewed as a prospectively stronger grounding. Future research around curriculum development in physiotherapy, might encourage greater emphasis on communication, resilience and confidence around dementia.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Physiotherapy Practice and Research
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	2213-0691
Departments:	Institute of Health > Psychology and Psychological Therapies
Additional Information:	Molly Hennah, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Dr Paul K. Miller PhD, Associate Professor in Social Psychology, University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	08 Dec 2025 11:31
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2025 12:24
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9231