First year and Intern physiotherapy student’s expectation of their future profession

Abstract

Background: Students expectations for their future profession may have an impact on their professional development. Expectations for students pursuing physiotherapy education change as they advance through academic and clinical training, preparing them for a future in healthcare as professionals. After their experiences in the classroom and in the clinical setting, first-year and intern physiotherapy students frequently have different ideas about what they want to do for a living. Aim: This study aims to investigate the expectations of first-year and intern physiotherapy students regarding their future profession, focusing on how these expectations evolve throughout their education and clinical internships. Method: Face to face qualitative research approach is applied with open ended question form. Total number of sample is 10 Physiotherapy students with 18-22 (50%) years old 5, 22-25 (20%), years old 2 and 25-28(30%), years old, participants were 3. Six were male (60%), and 4 were female (40%). Data was collected from first-year and intern physiotherapy students at Bangladesh Health Professions Institute (BHPI), University of Dhaka. Result: The study identified five main themes from the data: motivation for choosing physiotherapy, distinctive career goals, challenges faced, influence of academic and clinical experiences, and final expectations. While intern students are concentrated on professional growth and landing government employment, first-year students primarily wanted to become qualified physiotherapists and pursue higher studies overseas. Both groups had to deal with issues, first year students think passing professional exam, government job and lack of qualified teachers, where’s intern students face like disarrange able academic programs, lack of standard able practical knowledge, longer period of graduation and dealing patients. Conclusion: According to the study's findings, expectations change dramatically from theoretical instruction to clinical experience. Enhancing early practical exposure, improving mentorship, and putting academic curriculum into line with clinical reality to close the gap between expectations and practice are some proposals for better preparing students for their professional careers. Keywords: Students expectations, Professional development, physiotherapy education, Challenges, Higher studies.