A Survey of Professionally Qualified Physiotherapist Working in Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units in Punjab

The purpose of this study was to observe the practice of physiotherapy in Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units (NICU and PICU) in Punjab state. The design of the study was exploratory cross sectional survey. Data was collected with the help of standardized questionnaire, which was sent to one hundred thirty therapists who worked in thirty eight different hospitals in Punjab and these hospitals have claimed physiotherapy facilities in their NICU and PICU premises. A period of two weeks was given to the therapists for the completion of questionnaire. If the therapists were not able to send the filled questionnaire within two weeks, then a reminder call was given to them for the next two consecutive weeks. It was found that only eighty-four (i.e. 64.61%) completed questionnaires was received from the twenty five hospitals. Results revealed that 60% of hospitals were having physiotherapists and out of which 51.2% therapists were graduate in nursing (B.Sc.), 41.7% graduate in physiotherapy (BPT) and 7.1% Master in Physiotherapy (MPT). It was concluded that not all of the patients get routine physiotherapy from the professionally qualified physiotherapists as part of their NICU and PICU stay in hospitals located in Punjab.