What are Physiotherapy Career Attributes?
Attributes in clinical practice encompass epistemological values, critical thinking, moral and ethical practice, powerful knowledge, and an interdisciplinary perspective. They go beyond employability and demonstrate your depth of understanding, higher-level skills, and commitment to ethical and effective clinical practice as a physiotherapist at different stages of your career.
The intended purpose is to apply the theory of knowledge together with clinical reasoning skills, the moral and ethical values required of the clinician and allow you to demonstrate these in your clinical practice. They do not represent curricular learnt or competencies gained, but how you reflect on your clinical practice and career against a set of attributes of clinical practice.
Remember there's no one-size-fits-all approach to this. It's essential to consider your unique interpretation of the attributes, your preferences, and aspirations when evaluating your career and clinical practice against these attributes.
| Leader in health | A physiotherapist that advocates for high-quality patient and clientcentred outcomes for all members of their communities, and that reflects the evidence and current best practice. |
| Clinically advanced | A physiotherapist who through expert clinical reasoning can assess and design treatments or management plans for complex clinical presentations to achieve quality outcomes that are patient centred and compliant with medico- legal requirements. |
| Research informed | A physiotherapist who informs clinical practice through involvement in, or integration and critical use of, research evidence, clinical expertise, patient values, and patient circumstance to provide best care and health outcomes for clients and families. |
| An educator | A physiotherapist with a high-level of communication skills to effectively inform, teach, and consult with clients and their support network, colleagues, health professionals, and other stakeholders to optimize the health care of others. |
| An Educator: Constructive member of an inter-disciplina ry team | A physiotherapist who supports patient and client outcomes across many health care settings and can identify when input from other professionals is required to optimise care |
| Inclusive and culturally respectful | A physiotherapist who sees the patient-as-person, considering each person as a whole, adopting person-centred and family focused (where relevant) management that prioritises cultural safety, respect and inclusiveness. |
| Global citizen | A physiotherapist with the ability to explore the population health questions, make critical evaluations of clinical decisions, be able to develop ethical and long-term solutions to current and future health and wellbeing of the community. |