Usefulness of virtuality in physiotherapy professional practices in the context of the COVID – 19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Vocational training in health faces great challenges since social distancing became one of the strategies controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Physiotherapy education has a practical component that requires contact with patients and through which students acquire professional skills. This face-to-face learning modality has had to be replaced by new pedagogical strategies, such as attention mediated by information and communication technology (ICT), case-based teaching, clinical simulation and tele-rehabilitation, trying to maintain patient-student interaction and compliance with professional training. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study, in 143 practice students of a physiotherapy program in the city of Cali - Colombia, which evaluates their perception after a professional training practice mediated by ICTs. Results: 82.5% of the students answered that, if it was possible to perform tele-rehabilitation during the virtual practices, considering it as useful in 36.4%. The most used virtual platforms were Google Meet and Zoom with 81.1%. More than half of the students (58%) agreed that synchronous and asynchronous virtual activities led to significant learning. Conclusion: Vocational training mediated by ICTs emerged in the face of the pandemic and reinforced this strategy as a learning tool for meeting professional training objectives and competencies, the quality is perceived as a viable strategy that implies a paradigm shift in traditional education within the training process.