Harvey Emily, Adsett Julie, Mudge Alison, Steele Michael, McRae Prue
Physiotherapy Department, Caboolture Hospital, Caboolture, Queensland, Australia.
School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Phys Ther. 2025 Jan 8;105(1). doi: 10.1093/ptj/pzae122.
Low inpatient mobility is associated with poor hospital outcomes. Poor communication between clinicians has been identified as a barrier to improving mobility. Understanding how mobility is communicated within the multidisciplinary team may help inform strategies to improve inpatient mobility. The aim of this study was to describe written mobility communication by physical therapists and nurses in acute care medical wards.
This cross-sectional observational study was conducted across 4 hospitals in an Australian health service. A survey of physical therapists and nurses identified preferred sources and content of written mobility communication. An audit described and compared written mobility communication in the most strongly preferred documentation sources. Findings were described and compared graphically between discipline and site.
Questionnaires were completed by 85 physical therapists and 150 nurses. Twenty-two sources of documentation about mobility were identified. Preferences for sources and content varied between disciplines. Physical therapists nominated several preferred information sources and sought and documented broader mobility content. Nurses often sought nursing documents that focused on current mobility assistance and aids, with limited communication of mobility level or mobility goals. Audits of 104 patient records found that content varied between sources and sites, and content was variably missing or inconsistent between sources.
Written mobility communication focused on mobility assistance and aids, rather than mobility levels or mobility goals, with poor completion and inconsistency within documentation. More complete and consistent documentation might improve progressive mobilization of hospital inpatients.
Physical therapists and nurses seek and document different content in a wide range of locations, leading to incomplete and inconsistent written documentation. Understanding and resolving these practice differences offers potential to improve mobility communication and practice.
住院患者活动能力低下与不良的医院结局相关。临床医生之间沟通不畅已被认定为改善活动能力的障碍。了解多学科团队内部如何就活动能力进行沟通，可能有助于为改善住院患者活动能力的策略提供信息。本研究的目的是描述急性护理内科病房中物理治疗师和护士书面的活动能力沟通情况。
这项横断面观察性研究在澳大利亚一家医疗服务机构的4家医院开展。对物理治疗师和护士进行的一项调查确定了书面活动能力沟通的首选信息来源和内容。一项审核描述并比较了最受青睐的文档来源中的书面活动能力沟通情况。研究结果以图表形式在不同学科和不同地点之间进行了描述和比较。
85名物理治疗师和150名护士完成了问卷调查。共确定了22种关于活动能力的文档来源。不同学科对信息来源和内容的偏好各不相同。物理治疗师提名了几个首选信息来源，并寻求和记录了更广泛的活动能力内容。护士通常查找侧重于当前活动能力协助和辅助器具的护理文档，关于活动能力水平或活动能力目标的沟通有限。对104份患者记录的审核发现，不同来源和不同地点的内容各不相同，而且不同来源之间内容存在缺失或不一致的情况。
书面活动能力沟通侧重于活动能力协助和辅助器具，而非活动能力水平或活动能力目标，文档填写不完整且不一致。更完整和一致的文档记录可能会改善住院患者的逐步活动能力提升。
物理治疗师和护士在众多不同位置查找并记录不同内容，导致书面文档记录不完整且不一致。了解并解决这些实践差异有改善活动能力沟通和实践的潜力。
