Original Research
Physiotherapists' lived experience of rehabilitating elite athletes,☆☆,,★★

https://doi.org/10.1054/ptsp.2001.0092Get rights and content

Abstract

Aim: To examine the ‘lived experiences’ of physiotherapists while treating elite athletes. Participants: Ten practising staff in south-west England, UK. Methods: After giving informed consent, in-depth interviews were conducted and member-checked. Adopting a hermeneutical approach, data reduction was undertaken by individuals, and then rebuilt by the research team in a consensus-building process. Findings: The essence of the lived experience of treating elite athletes was one of ‘working-ness’. In describing experiences of how well rehabilitation was working, physiotherapists expressed a wide range of ‘knowing’ about rehabilitation and about elite athletes. However, the quality of the physiotherapists experience was often a product of local politics, short time frames and interpersonal relationships. Accounts resonated with Merleau-Ponty's concepts of ‘in-the-body’, and Husserl's ‘Being in the world’. Elite athletes were seen in terms of their: (1) 100%-ness, (2) individualized injury experience, (3) ignorant knowing, and of how (4) soccer is different. To describe their own part in the rehabilitation process, physiotherapists spoke about ‘I-who’ and this involved: (5) trying to keep everyone happy, (6) getting into the sport, but staying outside the game, (7) offering ‘real’ and ‘service’ treatments, and (8) Using ‘goaling’ to retrieve athleticism. Physiotherapists were concerned with the ‘working-ness’ of their practices and relationships. They used many ways of ‘knowing’ about their effectiveness to do what they feel is an important, but often stressful, job. These issues provide an important addition to existing templates of professional preparation of, and support for, sports specialists.

References (52)

  • B.W. Brewer et al.

    Preliminary psychometric evaluation of a measure of adherence to clinic-based sport injury rehabilitation

    Physical Therapy in Sport

    (2000)
  • P. Burnard

    A method for analysing interview transcripts in qualitative research

    Nurse Education Today

    (1991)
  • J.V. Appleton

    Analysing qualitative interview data: addressing issues of validity and reliability

    Journal of Advanced Nursing

    (1995)
  • G. Balague

    Understanding identity, value, and meaning when working with elite athletes

    The Sport Psychologist

    (1999)
  • L. Barritt

    Human science and the human image

    Phenomenology and Pedagogy

    (1986)
  • H.S. Becker

    Tricks of the Trade: How to think about your research while you're doing it

    (1998)
  • B.W. Brewer

    Adherence to Sport Injury Rehabilitation Regimes

  • B.A. Carper

    Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing

    Advances in Nursing Science

    (1978)
  • J.W. Creswell

    Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among five traditions

    (1998)
  • N. Durand-Bush et al.

    The Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3)

    The Sport Psychologist

    (2001)
  • R. Elliott et al.

    Evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields

    British Journal of Clinical Psychology

    (1999)
  • L. Evans et al.

    Sport injury and grief responses: A review

    Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

    (1996)
  • A.C. Fisher

    Adherence to sports injury rehabilitation programmes

    Sports Medicine

    (1990)
  • I.W. Ford et al.

    Social support and athletic injury: The perspective of sport physiotherapists

    Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

    (1993)
  • A. Forsberg et al.

    Experiencing liver transplantation: a phenomenological approach

    Journal of Advanced Nursing

    (2000)
  • R. Geanellous

    Exploring Ricoeur's hermeneutic theory of interpretation as a method of analysing research texts

    Nursing Inquiry

    (2000)
  • K.J. Gergen

    If persons are texts

  • M.K. Giacomini et al.

    Users guide to the medical literature: XXIII. Qualitative research in health care. A. Are the results of the study valid?

    Journal of the American Medical Association

    (2000)
  • M.K. Giacomini et al.

    Users guide to the medical literature: XXIII. Qualitative research in health care. B. What are the results and how do they help me care for my patients?

    Journal of the American Medical Association

    (2000)
  • D. Gould et al.

    Stress sources encountered when rehabilitating from season-ending ski injuries

    The Sport Psychologist

    (1997)
  • C. Guignon

    The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger

    (1995)
  • M. Heidegger

    Being and Time (MacQuarrie J, Robinson E. trans.)

    (1962)
  • E. Husserl

    Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy (Lauer Q. trans.)

    (1965)
  • M.A. Jasper

    Issues in phenomenology for researchers of nursing

    Journal of Advanced Nursing

    (1994)
  • S.M. Jevon

    Psychological impact of injury in elite athletes: An exploration of the knowledge of the governing body chartered physiotherapist

    (2001)
  • Cited by (8)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Jim McKenna Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS6 1TN, UK.

    ☆☆

    Helen Delaney Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol B56 ITN, UK.

    Sonia Phillips School of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, University of the West of England, Blackberry Hill, Bristol BS16 1DD, UK.

    ★★

    Correspondence to: Jim McKenna, Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS6 1TN, UK. Tel: +44(0) 117 928 8128; Fax: +44(0) 117 954 6861; E-mail: [email protected]

    View full text