KNOWBEST: The KNOWledge, BEhaviours and Skills required of the modern physioTherapy graduate including the future role of practice based learning

KNOWBEST was commissioned by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) to inform their review of pre-registration physiotherapy education in the UK.

We used a variety of methods in this project. A scoping review of contemporary approaches to PBL, including learning through simulation was carried out. We located and analysed current role/job descriptors and mapped these to the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attributes required for contemporary physiotherapy practice. We used ‘crowdsourcing’ to collect data from key stakeholders [Public Health England, CSP, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), physiotherapy graduates, managers, service users/patients etc)] to evaluate the perceived needs of contemporary physiotherapy graduates. We held focus groups with key stakeholders including academic staff in HEIs, practice educators and students to further explore and analyse data all our data and to inform recommendations for the CSP. We then synthesised data from all these activities to finalise recommendations for the CSP and completed the project report.

Twelve recommendations were developed for consideration by the CSP.