Evaluating Physical Therapy Students' Knowledge of and Adherence to the Ambassador Low Back Pain Guideline

PURPOSE: To examine a process for evaluating physiotherapy (PT) students' knowledge of and adherence to the Ambassador Low Back Pain (LBP) guideline using vignettes. METHODS: The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Participants were PT students who had received information related to the guideline as part of their curriculum. Primary measures were responses to questions about the management of four clinical vignettes. Adherence to guideline recommendations was measured by comparing participant scores to a "guideline-based" set of responses from a physiotherapist involved in developing the Ambassador guideline, which was considered a criterion standard. RESULTS: A total of 74 respondents provided complete data, for a response rate of 89%; 65 (88%) reported no knowledge of the guideline. Overall consistency with the criterion standard was high (>70%). Respondents demonstrated high adherence when identifying red flags and deciding whether to refer to another provider. CONCLUSION: Despite known exposure, knowledge of the guideline was low in this sample of Canadian PT students. Nevertheless, in several key areas, unconscious adherence was high relative to the guideline-based criterion standard. With minor modifications, the vignettes are suitable for evaluating the Ambassador LBP guidelines in a larger study.