An investigation into clinical reasoning within the context of critical care for cardiorespiratory physiotherapists using SimMan® (Laerdal™)

ISRCTN	ISRCTN77334588
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN77334588
Protocol serial number	N/A
Sponsor	University of Southampton (UK)
Funder	Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) (UK) (ref: PRF/09/3)

Submission date: 23/06/2010
Registration date: 22/06/2011
Last edited: 07/03/2017

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Respiratory

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Record updated in last year

Plain English summary of protocol

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Mrs Debbie Thackray
Scientific

School of Health Sciences
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom

Phone	+44 (0)23 8059 5471
Email	dt5@soton.ac.uk

Study information

Primary study design	Observational
Study design	Qualitative observational study
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study type	Participant information sheet
Scientific title	An investigation into clinical reasoning within the context of critical care for cardiorespiratory physiotherapists using SimMan® (Laerdal™): a qualitative observational study using a mixed methods approach of video recording, thinking aloud and debrief interviews
Study objectives	The study will identify the clinical decision making process used by expert respiratory physiotherapists in the acute setting.
Ethics approval(s)	School of Education Research Ethics Committee (University of Southampton), 21/12/2009
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Post-operative respiratory complications
Intervention	This is an interpretive observational study using mixed methods of simulation: video, think aloud and debrief interviews. A patient scenario will be designed and operated through the computerised manikin SimMan® (Laerdal™) at the VIP suite, Building 67, School of Health Sciences University of Southampton. The simulated scenario and environment will be set up to be as realistic as possible. A nurse will be present at the patients bedside and will be able to answer any questions about the patient and his care. The patient's notes and charts will all be available. The individual physiotherapist will be invited to assess the simulated patient and to form a problem list and treatment plan. This is anticipated to take as long as it would in clinical practise so approximately 20 - 40 minutes duration. This will be followed by a debrief interview where the participant can view their assessment and can comment about their performance - approximately 20 - 30 minutes. The data from the video, the think aloud and the debrief interview will be analysed using content analysis to find if there are any common themes between the participants.
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure(s)	1. Create a realistic simulated critical care scenario, using anonymised real patient data. The scenario has been written - pilot study to take place on July 16th, 2010. 2. Observe and record the clinical decision making processes used by expert physiotherapists. First set of data to be collected 26th, 27th, 28th July 2010. 3. Identify the knowledge, skills and behaviour of the decision making process of expert physiotherapists in a simulated critical care environment. This will be interpretive from the three sets of data - video, think aloud and debrief interviews. Measures will be taken to verify the reliability the assessment by the participant in the debrief interview, intra-reliability measures will be taken to ensure that each set of data is categorised in the same way in the content analysis.
Key secondary outcome measure(s)	1. Produce a conceptual framework of the clinical decision making used by expert physiotherapists when assessing and treating the critically ill patient. This will be produced when all 10 participants, data has been collated and analysed - September 2012. 2. From the conceptual framework produce an educational strategy for teaching clinical decision making in critical care. At the end of the study - December 2012 - the video clips will be embedded into power point and modified to use the audience response system so as to facilitate clinical reasoning with undergraduate (UG) students.
Completion date	26/01/2012

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Adult
Sex	All
Target sample size at registration	10
Key inclusion criteria	1. Band 8, band 7, band 6 cardio respiratory physiotherapists working in critical care, intensive care units (ICU) or high dependency units (HDU) 2. At least 3 years clinical experience 3. At least 6 weeks recent experience in adult cardiorespiratory care 4. All participants must be familiar with working out of hours (twilight, on call, weekend rotas) and be managing independently their own caseload and making their own clinical decisions and willing and able to discuss their clinical decision making 5. Average age between 25 - 45 years, either sex
Key exclusion criteria	1. Physiotherapy students will be excluded as they are not yet working independently in this field 2. Any qualified physiotherapists who have not practised within the last 6 months in adult cardiorespiratory physiotherapy and have less than 3 years experience
Date of first enrolment	26/07/2010
Date of final enrolment	26/01/2012

Locations

Countries of recruitment

United Kingdom
England

Study participating centre

School of Health Sciences

Southampton
SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom

Results and Publications

Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not provided at time of registration
IPD sharing plan

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Participant information sheet	Participant information sheet	11/11/2025	11/11/2025	No	Yes

Editorial Notes

07/03/2017: No publications found in PubMed, verifying study status with principal investigator