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Local Internship Affiliation Center Workload and Lower Limb Pain among Physical Therapy interns in Selected University: Correlational Study

Maria Sophia B Abarco

Introduction: Internships are an essential part of educational programs to provide hands-on experience to students. Internships may last anywhere from six months to two years. Eight hours of duty for five consecutive days, handling various patients and treating them in a different environment is a big task for interns. Musculoskeletal pain is highly prevalent in the healthcare industry frequently affecting healthcare workers including nurses, medical technologists, and physical therapists (PT). Low back pain accounted for the most common site of pain experienced by PT while hip and thigh were the least common, and thus the most under researched. Due to this, the researchers hoped to identify whether or not the internship workload contributes to the lower limb pain of the Physical Therapy Interns in selected higher education institution (HEI) AY 2022-2023. The findings of the study will serve as the baseline to those who wish to conduct similar studies.

Methods: This study used a descriptive-correlational design which allowed the researchers to gather information, measure and explain the association between the variables. Respondents were the Physical Therapy Interns of selected HEI AY 2022-2023. The data was gathered through google forms which were emailed to the respondents. The researchers used a self-made questionnaire that underwent a Cronbach-Alpha Coefficient for reliability testing and Lawshe Content Validity testing for the questionnaire.

Results: The results have shown that there is a significant relationship between the level of lower limb pain and local affiliation center workload, however there is no relationship between level of lower limb pain and local affiliation center physical demands and types of interventions.

Discussion: The study concluded that the greater the patient load an intern has, the greater their risk of developing lower limb pain. As a result, the findings of this research is useful to the said benefactors to provide and/or suggest amelioration activities to prevent or lessen the occurrence of lower limb pain with regards to the said factors.