Impact Assessment: Perception of physiotherapy faculty: A pilot study

Introduction: Impact assessment links evidence and decision making according to world health organisation. Moreover Maharashtra University of Health Sciences had recently conducted the impact assessment of physiotherapy colleges and V.S.P.M'S college of physiotherapy was one of the first physiotherapy institute to undergo this process which prompted the idea of undertaking the research with an aim to understand the perceptions of physiotherapy faculty in regards to impact assessment. Material and Methods: Descriptive questionnaire based study was carried out on physiotherapy faculties of 2 out of the 4 colleges existent in Nagpur which had undergone for impact assessment process. The faculties who volunteered to participate in the study were provided with questionnaires for understanding the perceptions of impact assessments .The questionnaire consisted of 10 closed ended questions which were rated according to 5 point likert scale and 2 open ended questions which were assessed according to specific key themes Results: 100% of the faculty perceived that impact assessment requires co-ordinated work and 81% felt it created a new learning experience ,but variations of perceptions existed in relation to replacement of local inspection with impact assessment .Majority of the faculty were not knowing about impact assessment before 2018 . Conclusions: Impact assessment helps in improving quality of physiotherapy colleges although it is a time consuming process.