Undergraduate physiotherapy students’ perspectives on optimising the curriculum for supported self-management education

Supported self-management (SSM) assists development of the skills people living with long-term conditions require to manage their health and live well. Physiotherapy students should learn how to deliver SSM but how to facilitate optimal student learning of SSM is currently not known. This mixed methods study aimed to determine, from a student perspective, how to best teach undergraduate physiotherapists to optimise their learning of the knowledge and skills in delivering SSM. Final year physiotherapy students were invited to participate in a nominal group session (n = 17) and then three rounds of an e-Delphi survey. Round one (n = 33) elicited ideas and themes for subsequent rounds, while rounds two (n = 25) and three (n = 13) measured consensus on ideas for improving the current SSM curriculum. Consensus was reached that learning SSM should be frequent, interesting, explicit, and incorporated into all years of training. Practical opportunities were favoured over theoretical learning via lectures. Learning SSM was seen as an ongoing process, important in providing person-centred care and improving health outcomes. Increasing learning opportunities that provide students with clear knowledge of SSM and a chance to practise using these skills in a real-life setting should be incorporated into entry-level physiotherapy education.