AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

The purpose of this thesis was to research information of what is the role physiotherapists have in ergonomical guidance of healthcare professionals in patient transferring and in manual handling. The additional questions were that how physiotherapists are teaching ergonomics and what are their professional’s skills in patient transferring and in manual handling ergonomics. The research was implemented as quantitative research but with open format ques-tions I was able to gather some qualitative data. The questionnaire was divided in three main categories: Personal information, Ergonomical guidance and professionals skills. The questionnaire was created with an E-form and was sent to the participants through email. The sampling size consisted of 21 physiotherapists all working in neurological and geriatric areas. The questionnaire was sent to physiotherapists working in different areas of physiotherapy in Helsinki, Espoo and Pori. It appeared that a great percentage of participating physiotherapists guided ergonomics in their work and thought it to be more than a third of their occupation. Participating physiotherapist used several different guiding methods when guiding ergonomics, and only few physiotherapists would guide the controversial transferring and manual handling methods. The qualification as an ergonomical instructor after graduation was evaluated to be rather poor. The sample size in this study was relatively small, limiting the ability to apply the results to other settings. A broader sample of physiotherapists from multiple areas may have shown different results.