Personal and Professional Relationship between the Physiotherapist and the Patient—Indian Scenario.

Background: The aim of this research work was to study the personal and professional relationship between the Physiotherapist and the Patient. Methods: A cross sectional survey was employed among working physiotherapists and patients who received physiotherapy with respect to their preferences over a variety of major domains and the knowledge about their relationship in the current day scenario; using a validated questionnaire. Results were depicted using narrations, mode, percentages, graphs and tables.? Results: From the current study 82% of patients said that they think communication is important and 87% of therapists suggested that they communicated well with their patients. Majority of patients wanted to be made to feel comfortable to express their worries and concerns regarding their condition and how it has affected their work, family and social life. About 65% of patients wanted to discuss and agree on the treatment together and 65% of therapists thought so too. Majority of patients also wanted the treatment program to be in accordance with their lifestyle, financial status and cultural background. However it has been observed that the decisions regarding the treatment were made mostly by the therapist alone and 60% of therapists said they encouraged these decisions to be made by themselves. About 53% of patients said they would not like the therapist to have a paternalistic approach and 61% of therapist said that they do have such an approach towards decision making regarding the treatment. Conclusion: Therapists and patients differ in their preferences regarding the important domains highlighted in this study i.e. Communication, problem and decision making, long term management, quality of life, information provision, recent experience and satisfaction.