Leadership capabilities of physiotherapy leaders in Ireland: Part 1 physiotherapy managers

Exploration of the representation of the allied health professions in senior leadership positions in the UK National Health Service

BACKGROUND

Allied health professionals (AHPs) are an important group within the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and make up a large portion of the workforce. Investment in AHP leadership is believed to lead to improvements in patient care, resource use, collaboration and innovation. This study aims to assess the current state of AHP strategic leadership within the NHS.

METHODS

A freedom of information (FOI) request was sent to all NHS Trusts and health boards (HBs) within the UK NHS. The questions focused on the AHP workforce, with a particular interest in the chief AHPs (or equivalent roles) working in an NHS setting. Analysis of the FOI used a range of descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

Of the 217 Trusts/HBs contacted, responses were received from 160 (74%). The majority (81%) reported that they employed a Chief AHP or equivalent role, with only 14% of these having a position on the Trust/HB executive board. There were 50 different job titles reported as the titles for the chief AHP or equivalent roles: with director of AHPs (18.6%), lead AHP (13.9%) and chief AHP (11.6%) being the most reported titles. The results identified an inequity of representation of AHP professions within senior AHP leadership; with most of these roles (70%) held by physiotherapists and occupational therapists.

CONCLUSION

Changes in AHP strategic leadership are needed to address the inequities identified in this study. Addressing these issues is required to enable inclusive leadership, which is crucial to improve the contribution of AHPs to healthcare.

Leadership in physiotherapy: experiences of leaders of physiotherapy professional organisations

Background

The changing demands of healthcare and ongoing advances in practice and technology require corresponding change and development of the physiotherapy profession. Physiotherapy professional organisations perform many important functions in ensuring the ongoing growth and success of the profession. The leaders of these organisations therefore have key roles in progressing the physiotherapy profession in their country. To date, however, there has been very little written about these physiotherapy leaders and their work for the profession.

Purpose

To explore the professional leadership journeys of international physiotherapy leaders and their experiences of leading physiotherapy professional organisations.

Methods

Semistructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 16 physiotherapy leaders from a range of physiotherapy professional organisations from around the world. The interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results

Three main themes were found in the analysis of the data: ‘Leadership roles, behaviours and challenges’, ‘Perceptions of the profession of physiotherapy’ and ‘Leadership development’.

Conclusions

The physiotherapy leaders describe interesting and varied roles that can also be challenging and demanding. They recognise the many challenges facing the physiotherapy profession internationally and the need for physiotherapists to more effectively advocate for the profession and demonstrate leadership. Leadership development opportunities and mentoring may be potential strategies to enable the development of future leaders of the physiotherapy profession.