Abstract
BACKGROUND: Physiotherapists recognise the biopsychosocial model as important in treating chronic pain. However, the adoption of this model in Dutch private practice is limited. Participatory action research, including co-design methods and an explicit perspective on workplace learning, may be helpful in developing a work-integrated learning programme to facilitate the use of a biopsychosocial perspective in private practice physiotherapy. OBJECTIVE: To give insight into the development of a work-integrated learning programme for private practice physiotherapists in assessing and treating patients with chronic pain from a biopsychosocial perspective. METHODS: An interprofessional development team of designers, developers, educational professionals and researchers engaged in a co-design process together with private practice physiotherapists, experts in chronic pain, patients and other relevant stakeholders. In this design process, the team developed several prototypes and the subsequent work-integrated learning programme during three 2-week design sprints, living-lab tests and validation sessions. All available co-design data were structured and analysed by three researchers, resulting in a plan of requirements as a foundation for the work-integrated learning programme. RESULTS: The data rendered two specific outcomes: (1) a plan of requirements to be used as an educational foundation for the work-integrated learning programme and (2) several prototypes based on the underlying principles that are used in the development and validation of the work-integrated learning programme. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows how co-design methods can be successfully applied to generate insights and develop interventions that bridge theory and practice for physiotherapists working in private practice. The designed prototypes and subsequent distilled plan of requirements for the development of a work-integrated learning programme offer new opportunities to facilitate the transition to working from a biopsychosocial perspective in private practice physiotherapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: RAAK.PUB06.014.