Veronika Schoeb

• PhD
• Professor at Haute École de Santé Vaud

Interprofessional meetings are crucial for achieving patient-centeredness in healthcare. Exactly how patient-centeredness is reached during these meetings remains underexamined. Adopting an Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (hereafter EMCA) perspective, this contribution looks at video-recordings of interprofessional meetings in two distin...

While Chinese dance is a popular dance genre among Chinese teenagers and adults, little is known regarding the prevalence of dance-related injuries or factors associated with such injuries among Chinese dance practitioners. The current cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of dance-related injuries and their associated risk factor...

Background and objectives: Although chronic low back pain (CLBP) is known to negatively affect multiple aspects of the lives of older people, prior qualitative studies mainly focused on the lived experiences of older people with CLBP in Western countries. Given cultural and contextual differences and poor understanding of CLBP in older women with...

Introduction The prevalence of chronic low back pain (LBP) increases with age and older adults are more vulnerable to develop chronic LBP. A recent Swiss study has shown that 78% of community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years experienced chronic LBP. Similarly, a study in Hong Kong found that approximately 30% of people aged above 60 years exper...

Background: Digital tools are becoming more and more common in healthcare. Their potential to improve treatment, monitoring, and coaching in physiotherapy has been recognized. Yet studies report that the adoption of digital health tools in ambulatory physiotherapy is rather low and that their potential is underexploited. Objective: This paper ai...

Traditional discipline-specific training has limitations in facilitating inter-professional communication and collaboration. To address this issue, two local universities in Hong Kong launched an interprofessional team-based learning program to allow the undergraduate healthcare students to form teams and experience collaborative problem-solving. T...

Older people are particularly vulnerable to hospital re-presentation following discharge. Ideal discharge planning processes facilitate the transition from hospital to home and prevent subsequent re-presentations to hospital. The objective of this study was to examine discharge planning processes in two Australian hospitals, compare them between si...

Background The Swiss containment strategy for the COVID-19 pandemic during the first wave in spring 2020 resulted in a moratorium on non-urgent physiotherapy via regular direct patient contact. Consequently, such physiotherapy sessions declined by 84%. This study investigates the impact of this moratorium on the use of digital remote physiotherapy...

Guidelines advocate a combined physical and psychological approach to managing non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP), referred to as psychologically informed practice (PIP). PIP is underpinned by patient-centered principles and skilled communication. Evidence suggests that a physiotherapist-focused style of communication prevails in physiothe...

Based on an empirical analysis of video-recorded collaborative practice situations, this article looks at different ways in which a health professional can direct a request to another professional with the aim that he or she performs an action. Using a corpus of video-recorded interactions in different institutional settings and types of situations...

Background The psychological well-being of university students is an important factor in successfully coping with the demands of academic life. This study aimed to assess the impact of a peer-led intervention of mental health promotion combined with coping-strategy-based group workshops on mental health awareness and help-seeking behavior among uni...

Background: Instruction in exercise therapy aims at patients being able to correctly perform exercises. The analysis of instructional sequences (i.e., questions) examines the achievement of social actions during exercise therapy. This study investigated physiotherapists’ questions for patients’ initiations of exercises and analyzed patients’ verbal...

Purpose: To investigate the psychometric properties of a Chinese-translated version of the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure. Materials and methods: The Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure was translated into Chinese using cultural adaptation by adding/replacing with activities relevant to Chinese culture. Pa...

Le présent projet de recherche a été financé par l'Office fédéral de la santé publique (OFSP) dans le cadre du programme de promotion « Interprofessionnalité dans le domaine de la santé » 2017-2020. Il a été encadré par plusieurs représentants de la section Développement professions de la santé (OFSP) : Nico van der Heiden, co-responsable de la sec...

Background : Guidelines advocate that non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) be considered within a multi-dimensional bio-psychosocial (BPS) framework. This BPS approach advocates incorporating the patient's perspective as part of the treatment process. 'Agenda setting' has been introduced as the key to understanding patients' concerns in medi...

In den letzten Jahren hat die interprofessionelle Zusammenarbeit im ambulanten Versorgungssektor auch in der Schweiz an Bedeutung gewonnen, was zu einer verbessserten Abstimmung untereinander, einer Optimierung des Informationsaustausches und damit letztlich zu mehr Versorgungsqualität beitragen soll.

Background: Hong Kong is at the cross-road between Eastern and Western cultures. Increasing globalisation allows student to gather experiences from various educational contexts. While internationalisation has been promoted in higher education world-wide, the focus was often put on students from Chinese cultures integrating into Westernised educatio...

Background: Hong Kong is at the cross-road between Eastern and Western cultures. Increasing globalisation allows students to gather experiences from various educational contexts. While internationalisation has been promoted in higher education worldwide, the focus was often put on students from Chinese cultures integrating into Westernised educatio...

Introduction: Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare and its impact on provision of health services are well described in the literature. However, health educators’ views about interprofessional collaboration are less known. This qualitative study explored academics’ perceptions regarding interprofessional collaboration, interactions between...

Interprofessional practice has become increasingly important. In addition, patients are expected to participate more actively in health-care decisions. While comprehensive discharge planning has been shown to be effective, it is unclear how interactional structure influences patients’ participation during discharge planning meetings. The aims of th...

Background and purpose: Patient participation is the cornerstone for effective physiotherapy intervention. The aim was to analyze how patients and physiotherapists negotiate symptoms during exercise therapy and describe patients' participation during this process. Methods: Nineteen consultations with sixteen patients and six physiotherapists wer...

Background Of various chronic diseases, low back pain (LBP) is the most common and debilitating musculoskeletal condition among older adults aged 65 years or older. While more than 17 million older adults in the USA suffer from at least one episode of LBP annually, approximately six million of them experience chronic LBP that significantly affects...

Background: Of various chronic diseases, low back pain (LBP) is the most common and debilitating musculoskeletal condition among older adults aged 65 years or older. While more than 17 million older adults in the USA suffer from at least one episode of LBP annually, approximately six million of them experience chronic LBP that significantly affects...

Documentation is an essential component of physiotherapy practice for clinical, legal, and ethical reasons. Research in other healthcare contexts suggests that documentation impacts upon communication in patient–practitioner interactions. Thus, the objective of this qualitative study was to examine how physiotherapists and their patients communicat...

In our research, data show that knowing about the others’ knowledge can result in: helping not to misjudge what the other does by knowing how his/her knowledge is organized (and its limits), better performing one’s own role (like prescribing treatments), justifying and explaining to other what a professional does (as in example above). Professional...

Cet article s’intéresse aux enregistrements vidéo comme données de sciences sociales, en particulier dans l’étude des institutions de santé. Sont abordés leurs apports et les enjeux entourant leur production et leur analyse. La vidéo permet la captation de situations naturelles et d’un nombre élevé d’informations. Si cet outil a été principalement...

Introduction La collaboration interprofessionnelle (IPC) en santé et son impact dans les soins sont bien décrits dans la littérature et porte sur le fonctionnement de l’équipe, le style de communication, la satisfaction des patients et leur prise en charge [1–3]. Qu’en est-il des représentations des formateurs et des professionnels de santé ? Le pr...

Introduction La collaboration entre un patient et son physiotherapeute est complexe [1]. L’enseignement d’exercices est important pour un traitement efficace et represente un moment ou le patient peut participer activement a sa prise en charge [2]. De plus, les patients pensent que des exercices sont importants pour le management a long terme des s...

Clinical guidelines require the patient’s participation in the entire rehabilitation process, including discharge planning. However, very little is known about how this institutional requirement is actually dealt with in everyday clinical practice. Adopting a conversation analytic approach, our paper tackles the matter, looking at situations in whi...

To enhance the patient’s involvement, clinical guidelines on rehabilitation require the patient’s participation in the entire rehabilitation process, including discharge planning (DP). However, very little is known about how this institutional demand is actually dealt with in everyday clinical practice. Adopting a conversation analytic (CA) approac...

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region combines a British colonial history within a Chinese cultural context and offers its population a dual system with a comprehensive and efficient public health care system in tandem with private hospitals and practitioners. Multiple challenges are looming: increasing demand for health services due to an ag...

In recent decades, there has been a gradual shift to more patient-centered approaches in physiotherapy (Heritage & Robinson, 2006; Chester, Robinson, & Roberts, 2014). Patients are expected to take a more active role in consultations rather than listening passively to health professionals. To date, while medical interactions have been analyzed from...

To increase patients' compliance, clinical guidelines insist on their participation in the entire rehabilitation process, including discharge planning (DP). However, very little is known about how this institutional requirement is implemented in the everyday business of a clinic. Adopting a conversation analytic approach, our paper tackles the ques...

Research priorities, defined by multiple stakeholders, can proximally facilitate the coordination of research projects and national and international cooperation and distally further improve the quality of physiotherapy practice. The aim of this study was therefore to establish physiotherapy research priorities in Switzerland considering multiple s...

L'article résume un travail de recherche réalisé par des sociologues et des physiothérapeutes en collaboration avec des médecins et des soignants. Cette étude se concentre principalement sur la question suivante: comment les spécialistes en clinique peuvent-ils tirer profit des connaissances acquises dans des cliniques de rééducation grâce à la rec...

Goal-setting is promoted in healthcare guidelines as a way to engage patients. However, not much is known about how this process is accomplished in practice. The objective was to identify how goal-setting is initiated in physiotherapy. The data comprise of 14 patient–therapist interactions in which physiotherapists inquire about goals using a wh-qu...

Primary Nursing (PN) is a model of care delivery which is described to favor patient participation, as a Primary Nurse is responsible for coordinating all aspects of care including discharge planning. The purpose of this paper is to explore patient-nurse interactions in a rehabilitation clinic in which PN is used. Twenty-five interactions of video-...

Background and purposeCommunication skills are essential for physiotherapy practice. It has been shown that patients, especially those with chronic pain problems, are more satisfied with services when therapists communicate adequately. The objective of this study was to explore how French-speaking physiotherapists and patients with low back pain ex...

Introduction: In today’s healthcare practice, professionals are expected to include patients in the decision-making process regarding their health. Rehabilitation centres rely in particular on patient involvement, and they are predestined for collaborative practices due to various health and social care professionals working alongside to provide ca...

Physiotherapists’ work entails helping patients improve or maintain their physical abilities. In health care today, professionals are encouraged to involve patients in decisions regarding their care. Although goal setting is seen as a key technique in promoting such involvement, evidence seems to suggest that in reality, goal setting presents signi...

Today patient participation is considered “best practice”. Yet, there are different perspectives on what patient participation means. While there is a line of argument that patient participation “is justified on humane grounds alone” and in line with patients’ right to self-determination” (Guadagnoli & Ward, 1998), there is evidence that not all pa...

Background: Since 2002, the professional education for Swiss physiotherapists has been upgraded to a tertiary educational level. With this change, the need for research related to professional practice has become more salient. The elaboration of research priorities is seen as a possible way to determine the profession's needs, to help coordinate r...

Purpose: Health care practice guidelines require physiotherapists to include patients in goal-setting. However, not much is known about how this process is accomplished in practice. The purpose of this study is to analyse patient-physiotherapist consultations and to identify how physiotherapists enquire about goals and how patients respond to thes...

In health care today, professionals are encouraged to include patients in decisions regarding their care. Goal setting is seen as a key technique that physiotherapists can use to involve patients, yet evidence seems to suggest that there are social and interactional difficulties inherent to this process. One way of eliciting patients’ opinions abou...

To identify professional musicians' representation of health and illness and to identify its perceived impact on musical performance. A total of 11 professional musicians participated in this phenomenological study. Five of the musicians were healthy, and the others suffered debilitating physical health problems caused by playing their instruments....

Introduction Qualitative and quantitative research methods are complementary. Qualitative studies have gained some importance in physiotherapy but are still underrepresented. The objective of this article is to present qualitative research and its utility. Methods Two studies are presented: (1) A phenomenological study identifies musicians’ represe...

Patient participation is nowadays considered important for high quality patient care. Although the literature on health care professions provides some insights into this topic, specific aspects in the field of physiotherapy are less known. The objective of this review was to investigate how patients and physiotherapists perceive patient participati...

Musicians are artists who use the entire body when playing their instruments. Since over-practicing may lead to physical problems, musicians might encounter focal dystonia, a hand's motor disorder. The cause seems to be the brain's confusion between afferent and efferent information transfer provoking a disharmony with the instrument. Although foca...

Background Physical therapists are generally advised to set therapeutic goals with each individual patient. The theory of “constructive negotiation” can be helpful in conceptualizing this process. The purpose of this study was to describe the interaction between the patient and the physical therapists during goal setting. Method Four physical ther...

Standards of practice in physiotherapy require professionals to set goals in collaboration with patients. Some evidence exists regarding outcome, but no studies have investigated the process of goal setting in orthopaedic physiotherapy. The objective of this pilot study is to describe the interaction between professionals and patients in the activi...

The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of an interdisciplinary geriatric outreach, rehabilitation, and education program for seniors. Community-dwelling Chinese seniors in lower Manhattan were recruited through outreach activities (17 educational workshops, three community health fairs, media interviews) and community physician referral...

Application of principles of rehabilitation medicine to community health is an area of great importance to the care of the elderly. New York City has a high percentage of Chinese immigrants. The complexity of age and cultural and communication difficulties require special attention, and an interdisciplinary approach is essential for success. The "C...

Application of principles of rehabilitation medicine to community health is an area of great importance to the care of the elderly. New York City has a high percentage of Chinese immigrants. The complexity of age and cultural and communication difficulties require special attention, and an interdisciplinary approach is essential for success. The “C...

Syringe-exchange programs (SEPs) have proven to be valuable sites to conduct tuberculin skin testing among active injection drug users. Chest x-rays (CXRs) are needed to exclude active tuberculosis prior to initiating treatment for latent tuberculosis infection. Adherence of drug users to referral for off-site chest x-rays has been incomplete. Prev...

Objectives: To evaluate the outcome of acupuncture treatment for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) and to measure clinical improvement and any predictors of patients’ compliance. Design: Prospective study. Setting: A tertiary care municipal hospital affiliated with a major university hospital. Participants: 32 patients (63% women; age rang...