Objectives: To ascertain an understanding of the confronting situations that physiotherapy students encounter in clinical practice.
Methods: Eighty-two final-year physiotherapy students attended an interactive workshop on confronting situations, and 46 of these students completed a follow-up survey. There were no selection criteria. Students wrote about these confronting situations, and the responses were used to formulate an online survey which was emailed to participants.
Results: Students wrote about the types of confronting situations that they had experienced. Survey results revealed that the most commonly seen confronting situations were clients in pain, clients with a condition that impacted significantly on their life and the life of their family and clients with degenerative diseases. Students primarily sought support from colleagues, clinical educators, and family/friends. Peers and clinical educators may be ill-equipped to manage these confronting situations.
Conclusion: Students are exposed to confronting situations in the clinical environment and feel they need more preparation in dealing with these distressing cases. While education regarding appropriate resources can be put in place, there is further work to do in preparing students for the confronting nature of working as a health professional.