Satisfaction level among rural and urban physical therapy students regarding their knowledge and clinical practice: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Physical therapy (PT) is an emerging field in Pakistan. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the level of satisfaction and attitude of medical students and nurses towards their clinical practice environment, but there are few studies on physical therapy students.

Objective: To assess student satisfaction levels among rural and urban physical therapy students regarding their knowledge and clinical practice.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted with a sample size of 250 PT students of different medical colleges in Punjab through convenient sampling technique. Physical Therapy Student Attitudes Questionnaire (PSAQ) was used. After taking consent, data was collected and analyzed by SPSS version 26.

Results: The study comprised of 250 participants, where the rural were 148 and urban were 102 with a mean age of 23.40±3.60 years. Results showed that there was neither a significant association (p-value=0.78) between gender and rural and urban students' satisfaction levels nor a significant association (p-value=0.43) between age and rural and urban students' satisfaction. The total mean score of rural and urban students was 87.91 and 89.83 respectively with a p- value = 0.39.

Conclusion: There was no significant difference between the overall satisfaction level of urban and rural students regarding their knowledge and clinical practice. Both genders and ages had no effect on students' satisfaction levels who belong to different residential areas nor did academic years of study and socioeconomic status affected the satisfaction level of students belonging to urban and rural areas.