Physiotherapy student interaction with home-based carers and the impact on service delivery
type: CreativeWork
description: Introduction: The national health system is experiencing major challenges due to a shortage of key human resources and a quadruple burden of disease. A cadre of trained community health workers, namely home-based carers (HBCs), have been trained in response to an increased need for health services. It is unclear to what extent the HBCs are able to provide rehabilitation support to their clients. Methodology: A quasi-experimental design was used to identify the impact of the collaboration between HBCs and physiotherapy students. Fifty HBCs from four organisations working within the Cape Town Metropolitan area were randomly selected and assigned to a control (n=25) and experimental (n=25) group. A validated checklist, based on the National Guidelines on Home Based Care and Community Based Care (Department of Health. 2001), and a self-developed questionnaire was used to determine the demographics and training of the HBCs; and the conditions of their clients. Results: The results indicated that the HBCs were predominantly middle-aged females with a highest qualification of Grade 12. No differences in gender or age were seen when we compared the control and experimental groups. The mean age of our sample size was 40.9 years (SD 11.13 and range 20-67 years), with a mean age of 43.6 year (SD 10.7) in the control group; and 38.1 years (SD 11.1) in the experimental group. There was a significant difference in the mean career length (with a mean of 778 months in the control group, and 497 months in the experimental group (p=0.006)) and length of training (mean control group = 773 months and experimental group = 502 months (p=0.007)) between the control and experimental groups. Although the control group spent more time on wound care and mathematics, the content of training was similar across the four organisations with HIV/AIDS topics reported by all respondents. There were no differences between the groups with regards to client profile, which included age, diagnosis and mai…
abstract: Introduction: The national health system is experiencing major challenges due to a shortage of key human resources and a quadruple burden of disease. A cadre of trained community health workers, namely home-based carers (HBCs), have been trained in response to an increased need for health services. It is unclear to what extent the HBCs are able to provide rehabilitation support to their clients. Methodology: A quasi-experimental design was used to identify the impact of the collaboration between HBCs and physiotherapy students. Fifty HBCs from four organisations working within the Cape Town Metropolitan area were randomly selected and assigned to a control (n=25) and experimental (n=25) group. A validated checklist, based on the National Guidelines on Home Based Care and Community Based Care (Department of Health. 2001), and a self-developed questionnaire was used to determine the demographics and training of the HBCs; and the conditions of their clients. Results: The results indicated that the HBCs were predominantly middle-aged females with a highest qualification of Grade 12. No differences in gender or age were seen when we compared the control and experimental groups. The mean age of our sample size was 40.9 years (SD 11.13 and range 20-67 years), with a mean age of 43.6 year (SD 10.7) in the control group; and 38.1 years (SD 11.1) in the experimental group. There was a significant difference in the mean career length (with a mean of 778 months in the control group, and 497 months in the experimental group (p=0.006)) and length of training (mean control group = 773 months and experimental group = 502 months (p=0.007)) between the control and experimental groups. Although the control group spent more time on wound care and mathematics, the content of training was similar across the four organisations with HIV/AIDS topics reported by all respondents. There were no differences between the groups with regards to client profile, which included age, diagnosis and mai…
author: Rustin, Letitia
language: eng
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:44Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Division of Physiotherapy

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15718