A Survey of Work Profiles and Histories of Physiotherapy Graduates from the University of Queensland

The year 1988 marked the 50th anniversary of the commencement of physiotherapy education at the University of Queensland. A survey was conducted to record the work profiles and histories of Queensland graduates. Surveys were sent to 1,689 of the 1,897 graduates with a good response rate of 62.5 per cent.

In 1987, 80 per cent of respondents were practising as physiotherapists, being reasonably evenly distributed between hospital practice, private practice and other more community based centres. With the exception of recent decade graduates, half of these predominantly female physiotherapists worked in a part-time capacity.

The results of this survey do not reveal major manpower wastage. Although temporary absences from the profession for family reasons were common, only 15.1 per cent of all respondents have permanently withdrawn from the profession.