Psychological Strategies for Movement Therapy in Inpatient Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: One-Group Pre/Post-Evaluation of Advanced Training for Movement Therapists

Physical activity improves the course of the disease and is therefore of great importance in inpatient orthopaedic rehabilitation. However, people with musculoskeletal disorders often find it difficult to remain active in everyday life. In order to support long-term exercise activity in everyday life, exercise therapy should be behaviour-oriented. In this regard, psychological strategies of behavioural change can be used ( i.e.,.strategies for promoting physical activity.). Since movement therapists (MTs) support the transfer of exercise activity into everyday life, they should have the knowledge and skills to use effective behavioural strategies for promoting movement in a targeted and precise manner. Hitherto, there has been scarce systematic evaluation of knowledge transfer and competence promotion for behaviour-related exercise therapy and the use of the related strategies for successful further training. The aim of this project therefore was the development and evaluation of the further training course. The development as an in-house workshop with 2 alternative in-depth formats (work-related vs. workshop) was reported elsewhere [19]. The aim of the evaluation was to examine whether the training could lead to the improvement of knowledge and competences and whether MTs applied the strategies that were taught in the course. 51 MTs from 4 inpatient rehabilitation facilities treating individuals with musculoskeletal disorders agreed to participate in the study. They took part in the training and received questionnaires at 4 measurement times: Directly before and 2 weeks after the training (T1, T2). This was done according to the specialisation formats (T3; 5-6 months after the training) and 8-9 months after the training (T4). The analyses included 28 MTs who had participated in the in-house training and one of the in-depth formats and had completed all 4 questionnaires. The primary target variables were knowledge and competencies on strategies for promoting physical activity, secondary target variables concerned the implementation of these strategies in one's own movement therapy work. In addition, differences between the 2 in-depth formats were described. After the in-house training (T2), the MTs reported significantly higher scores for knowledge, theoretical understanding and self-assessed competencies for the strategies of physical activity promotion than for T1. These values stabilized until the last measurement time (T4). The intention to use strategies and the frequency of use of the strategies also increased significantly. With regard to in-depth formats, the descriptive values for the workshop were significantly better than for the individual, work-related units.