Ms Caitlin Brooks, Mr Nathan Sheng, Ms Hillary Beehag, Dr Marie K. March1
1Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Caitlin is currently the Physiotherapy Clinical Educator for Ageing Well in Community (AWIC) within South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD), NSW. Caitlin has extensive experience providing physiotherapy to an aged care population across inpatient, outpatient and community settings across SWSLHD. Caitlin is currently the AWIC representative for the SWSLHD Falls Steering Committee and the co-chair for the SWSLHD Rehabilitation Network Group. Caitlin’s clinical areas of interest include community-based physiotherapy for geriatric populations, and student supervision in community settings.
Abstract:
Physiotherapy in the Transitional Aged Care Program (TACP) in South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) has traditionally been completed in a home-based, one-to-one setting. The amount of therapy a client receives is therefore dependent on the therapist's capacity to travel to their home. In 2023 a supervised group exercise class was introduced at three TACP sites across SWSLHD. The aim of this project was to assess the impact of the exercise class on dosage of therapy and patient function. This was a quality improvement (QI) project, reviewed by the Quality & Safety committee, and deemed to not need ethics approval.
Sociodemographic data and therapy dosage was obtained retrospectively from the medical record and existing physiotherapy statistics. Patient function was measured using a Timed Up and Go (TUG) and Step Test (ST) score on initial and final exercise group.
Outcome measures were completed for 29 clients attending the group class between September 2023 and November 2024. Clients had a mean age of 78 (SD 8.3), and on average attended six group classes, resulting in an extra 360 minutes of therapy during their TACP admission. Mean TUG time improved from 23 (SD 9.2) to 18.4 (SD 8.8) seconds (MD 4.6 seconds, p<0.001). ST score improved from 5.4 (SD 4.5) to 8.2 (SD 5.1) steps (MD 2.7 steps, p<0.001).
Overall, this QI project has demonstrated that addition of a group exercise class increases client therapy time while on TACP and leads to statistically significant functional changes.