Background
A 12-month pilot for Physiotherapy in primary care ran at Te Nīkau Health Centre, Greymouth in 2022/2023. The Physiotherapist worked as an integrated member of the primary care team, as the first point of contact for patients with musculoskeletal conditions.

Purpose
The purpose of the pilot was to reduce wait times for musculoskeletal care and to free up other clinicians’ time to enable better long term condition management. These objectives were underpinned by an equity focus to improve access and outcomes for Māori.

Methods
Equity measures piloted included holding clinics at a Māori Health Provider and a rural satellite clinic. The Primary Care Physiotherapist (PCP) worked to top of scope in an assessment, diagnosis, referral and self-management role. Most patients who required rehabilitation were referred another provider, but Māori and rural clinics could have rehabilitation with the PCP.

Results
Patients seen by the PCP had an average wait time of 5.1 days, compared to pre-pilot average wait of 9.8 days for musculoskeletal conditions. Staff reported they had more time for long term condition management. The percentage of Māori seen with musculoskeletal conditions was 9% pre-pilot, with 14% of patients seen by the PCP identifying as Māori. A patient survey revealed that they were impressed with the prompt service and appreciated seeing a clinician with the best musculoskeletal knowledge and skills.

Conclusions
Integrating Physiotherapy into primary care, in a first contact role for musculoskeletal conditions, can improve equity for Māori and rural patients and ensures that patients receive timely, high-quality care.

Implications
There is potential for this role to have a significant impact in primary care, and with flow-on effects to secondary care. The role can improve equity for Māori and rural patients, however, for the full impact to be realised some legislation changes will be required.

Background: Clinical documentation is a core component of physiotherapy practice, and educators are accordingly tasked with developing clinical documentation skills in physiotherapy students. Despite this, limited published evidence exists regarding effective teaching and learning strategies for clinical documentation in physiotherapy education programs. This may pose a challenge to physiotherapy educators and students alike, especially when ensuring students are equipped to successfully transition from curriculum-based learning to practice placements. Purpose: To trial and evaluate the implementation of standalone training module to enhance the clinical documentation skills of final year physiotherapy students, and support their transition to clinical practice placements. Methods: The 5 hour training module (split across two consecutive days) was implemented in a cohort of fourth year undergraduate physiotherapy students at The University of Queensland in Australia. The training module focused on developing skills specific to progress notes and referral letters in a musculoskeletal private practice setting, and featured standardised documentation simulation and interactive worked-example learning activities. The module was evaluated through pre-post comparison of student writing in domains of purpose, content, style, length, organisation, and language. A post-test survey measured student satisfaction with the module as a secondary outcome. Results: A total of 112 students participated in the training module. Preliminary data suggests that writing performance improved in domains of ‘purpose’, ‘content’, ‘length’ and ‘organisation’. Students reflected that the module enhanced their learning, and helped them identify strengths and weaknesses in their clinical documentation. Students also indicated that additional opportunities for feedback, revision and practice of writing would have been helpful. Conclusion: Simulation and worked-examples are teaching tools that may assist physiotherapy students in honing their documentation skills prior to clinical practice placements. Implications: The knowledge gained from trialling this training module may support physiotherapy educators in designing and implementing curriculum to develop physiotherapy students’ clinical documentation skills.