Is a Physiotherapy Advanced Practitioner what you need?

The role of a physiotherapist

Physiotherapists are specialists in the assessment and analysis of neuro-musculoskeletal dysfunction and work to restore movement and function following an injury, accident, illness, or disability. Their role in the rehabilitation process is therefore critical to the long-term wellbeing and overall quality of life of their clients. They support people at all stages in life with expertise in identifying, preventing, assessing, and treating conditions that threaten functional capacity as a result of a wide range of health conditions.

Their holistic perspective on the body enables them to deliver manual therapy and expert advice as part of a rehabilitation plan in addition to having the ability to educate clients on techniques they can use to manage and optimise their own movement on an ongoing basis.

Bush & Co has a network of highly specialised adult and paediatric physiotherapy expert witnesses that includes advanced practitioners and first contact practitioners who provide services to claimant and defendant solicitors and insurers.

Advanced physiotherapy practitioners

Working in an extended role, an advanced physiotherapy practitioner operates with a higher degree of autonomy across the health and social care landscape to enable integrated care and this role encompasses the independent triaging, assessment, evaluation, and diagnosing of patients with highly complex disorders and possible multiple pathologies.

Their objective of maximising the independence of clients remains the same, but advanced practitioners often have leadership and management responsibilities in addition to their duties as physiotherapists and possess the skills to address complex decision-making processes and manage risk in uncertain situations.

Advanced physiotherapists work at a higher level of expertise with extended skills in a specialised clinical area such as injection therapy, with some having additional capabilities such as prescribing rights. They collaborate closely with medical professionals and often act as the first contact practitioners with the authority to order x-rays, scans, and blood tests alongside their responsibilities in managing the client’s rehabilitation.

The importance of advanced practitioners

Often bringing innovative thinking to service delivery and adding value to the traditional elements of physiotherapy, advanced practitioners work across multi-professional or multi-agency teams and their capacity to initiate service improvements in complex and unpredictable contexts with higher levels of accountability makes them central to client rehabilitation plans and well-placed to deliver expert insight and produce physiotherapy expert witness reports for litigation purposes.

Health issues such as musculoskeletal conditions are among the most common cause of work absences and GP appointments, with many sufferers requiring long-term care. At Bush & Co, our team of highly skilled associate physiotherapists operate in a wide number of private, public, and voluntary health and social care settings. In addition to providing expert opinion on neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, they offer the skills and knowledge to undertake cases involving respiratory, chronic pain, vestibular and women’s health.