Physical Therapy Education: The Feasibility of International Collaborative Assignments Using E-mail

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Spring 2004 by Williams, Marie, Feldman, Robert

Each group was required to complete three tasks with respect to the patient scenario:

Task 1: Outline the physical therapist management in America and Australia for this client, including the main problems, the aims of intervention, and an intervention plan for the next 10 days.

This task sought to encourage clinical reasoning and problem solving as well as provide an avenue to compare and contrast American and Australian physical therapist practices. Students were required to include a clear statement of the client's main problems, what the aim of any intervention was (including use of adjunctive equipment), and a plan of care for the next 10 days. As management practices were likely to differ between American and Australian systems, students were guided to answer this question within a two-column table.

Task 2: Assuming this client requires a minimum of three physical therapy sessions a week, determine the cost to the client if the client is privately insured or has no insurance coverage.

The information was required for both American and Australian situations. This task required the group to access information concerning fee guidelines for physical therapy intervention. Students were advised that while a fee guideline exists, private physical therapist practitioners are not bound to charge the fee as indicated by the guidelines, and therefore students were encouraged to contact physical therapists to find out the fees that are charged. Students were required to choose and contact an insurance provider and find out how much of the scheduled fee the insurer would pay and how much the client would be required to pay. For uninsured clients, students were required to find out whether any government provision was likely and what cost would be incurred if the clients bore the cost of treatment independently. For this task, students were required to explicitly state:

* Fee guidelines (if they exist) or physical therapist practice fees.

* Private insurer (name of company, annual fee, physical therapy costs covered, and gap payment).

* For uninsured clients, the government insurance scheme and whether this scheme will pay any of the fee or the entire fee.

* Exchange rate used and costs calculated in United States and Australian currency.

Task 3: Decide and justify which system (public or private, American or Australian) provides the "best" system of care for the client presented in the scenario.

The group was required to provide a 500-word discussion concerning which system provides the "best" care for this client. The group was requested to explicitly define what is meant by "best."

One assignment including responses to all three tasks was to be submitted to the lecturer responsible for the course at either UnISA or USP; that is, the same assignment was submitted to both educators. Each assignment was independently marked by the two educators, with the mean mark being the final mark for the assignment (Australian mark American mark/2 = final mark).

Assessment Criteria