Self-reported Vital Sign Assessment Practices of Neurologic Physical Therapists

Abstract

Purpose: This study's purpose was to describe the vital sign assessment (VSA) practices of physical therapists (PTs) during evaluation and treatment of patients with neurologic conditions. Methods: A survey was distributed to clinicians from a clinical site database and the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy's list serve. Respondents included US licensed PTs who treat patients with neurologic conditions. Results: Usable surveys included 133 US PTs with 69.2% doctorally prepared and 79.7% American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) members. Although 58.6% of survey respondents indicated that VSA is an essential part of the PT evaluation, at evaluation, only 37.6% and 39.1% of respondents always take heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP), and only 8.3% of respondents always take respiratory rate (RR). During treatment, only 14.3% of respondents report taking HR or BP at each session, while only 5.3% always take RR. Board certification was correlated with an increased frequency of HR assessment (P = .0027) and BP (P = 0.038) at evaluation, while importance of VSA strongly correlated with increased assessment of HR (P = 0.000), BP (P = 0.000), and RR (P = 0.003) at evaluation and with HR (P = 0.000) and BP (0.000) during treatment. Conclusions: Although VSA by neurologic PTs is higher than other identified PT groups, it is still below-recommended assessment guidelines.