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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Rehabil. Sci.
Sec. Human Functioning Sciences
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fresc.2024.1412163
This article is part of the Research Topic ICF in Teaching, Training and Education - Retrospective For Future Concepts - What Remains Of 20 Years Of ICF In Education? View all 3 articles

ICF in Bachelor Programs -The implementation of the ICF in physiotherapist's Clinical Reasoning process for neurological patients Optimizing Healthcare Curriculum for Comprehensive Patient Care

Provisionally accepted
Hannes Aftenberger Hannes Aftenberger *Bernhard Taxer Bernhard Taxer
  • Department of Physiotherapy, FH Joanneum, Graz, Austria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The International Classification of Function, Disability, and Health (ICF) is known to be a valuable classification model in interprofessional neurorehabilitation, as it can lead to more patient-centered and self-determined treatment. To acquire the competencies implementing the ICF in the field of neurorehabilitation, it is important to anchor essential skills in the basic training of healthcare professionals.The Institute of Physiotherapy at FH JOANNEUM in Graz / Austria developed a concept so that students learn the necessary skills for implementing the ICF in a structured way. In the area of neurorehabilitation, we linked the ICF model with the Clinical Reasoning Model (CR). Competences are acquired over 6 semesters. Besides the general topics relating to the ICF (such as history, intention, and language) and CR which are taught in the first year, we focus in the later semesters explicitly on transferring these skills to neurorehabilitation. Therefore, we use interprofessional group work and problem-based courses as essential didactic elements for this transfer of skills.This article aims to show how the ICF could be implemented in bachelor's degree programs for physiotherapy as well as in other healthcare programs. The author´s experiences are described and some best practice examples when working with the ICF in this field are given.

    Keywords: Physiotherapy, Bachelor's degree program, clinical reasoning, ICF, Neurorehabiliation

    Received: 04 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Aftenberger and Taxer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hannes Aftenberger, Department of Physiotherapy, FH Joanneum, Graz, Austria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.