Factors promoting Proficiency in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Practice in Nigeria.

Background: Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy specialty practice is one of the specialty areas in physiotherapy experiencing gradual development in Nigeria with more practitioners undergoing specialisation training programmes in it.Objective: This paper therefore attempts to describe the factors that influence proficiency of physiotherapy specialists in cardiorespiratory care practice in Nigeria as there is currently no such document in Nigeria and possibly Africa.Methods: The study adopted a descriptive qualitative design using a self-structured and validated questionnaire. The participants were physiotherapists from various health institutions in Nigeria who gathered for continuous professional development (CPD) training programmes in cardiorespiratory practice. 82 properly filled of the 87 questionnaire forms administered were retrieved from participants who included 49 males and 33 females of varying age and practice years of experience (YoE). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explore the data obtained using SPSS. Alpha level was set at 0.05.Results: The results of the study showed that age(r=0.862, p<0.05) and gender (r=0.146, p<0.005) of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy practitioners do not significantly influence their proficiency in practice while YoE (r=0.000, p<0.05), institutions of practice (r=0.001, p<0.05) and attendance of CPD programmes have significant association with practitioners’ proficiency in terms of familiarity with cardiorespiratory devices (r=0.032, p<0.05) and assessment of patients with cardiorespiratory problems(r=0.000, p<0.05).Conclusion: It is concluded that proficiency in cardiorespiratory physiotherapy is majorly influenced by factors such as institution of practice and participation in CPD training programmes in the specialty area. YoE in cardiorespiratory care also has promotive influence on familiarity of practitioners with intensive care devices.