The Role Of Cooperation Between Physiotherapists And Surgeons In Peri-Operative Care, The Case Of Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services Hospitals

Better surgical outcomes are guranteed where perioperative physiotherapy care is implemented. This study set out to assess the level of cooperation between surgeons and physiotherapists in managing surgical patients as can be reflected in the number of surgical patients seen by physiotherapy (PT) staff both before and after surgical operations in three (3) major Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) Health Services’ hospitals selected through convenient sampling. We questioned the level of
understanding of the role of PT in Peri Operative care by Physiotherapists and Surgeons, evaluated the proportion of pre- and post-surgical patients attended to by physiotherapists, identified obstacles to cooperation between surgeons and physiotherapy staff, and made recommendations. Field work was done in the form of interviews, observations, review of available and related literature, from registers in PT and surgical rooms. The analysis were done through quantities and qualitative approaches; where outcomes were discussed in thematic clusters guided by research questions and represented on tables. The analysis reveal that there exists cooperation between PT and Surgeons in pre and post-operative care. However, at different proportions, this level of cooperation is higher in post-operative patients than in pre-operative patients. The findings and responses from participants reveal that there is over burden on a few staff, mostly surgeons who carry the more responsibility to attend to patients pre and post operatively. This may stem from inadequate involvement of PT in Perioperative care, inadequate knowledge on the role their cooperation plays in patient recovery, inadequate interest shown by PT, absence of a protocol that guarantees cooperation, bossy nature of some surgeons that do not seek opinions of PT among others. The researcher recommends that cooperation between PT and surgeons in perioperative care is indispensable for quality health care in the CBC Health Services and a dire need to improve on this quality of cooperation especially in pre-