Physiotherapy E-Training Re-HAbilitation Erasmus Project

Project Title

Physiotherapy E-Training Re-HAbilitation

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition, transparency, certification; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Prior to starting this project, the IRFSS Aquitaine and its two academic partners, the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) in Spain and the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP) in Portugal wondered: How could we enable physiotherapy students to train themselves intensively on clinical reasoning?
Indeed, beyond the knowledge linked with their core profession, these students need to master all the steps of this healthcare process. The best way to master it is by being able to practice intensively and regularly with simulated clinical situations as close as possible to reality. Yet, the internships carried out during their studies and the simulation sessions provided by the 3 partners are not sufficient.

Exchanges with the French company Interaction Healthcare, leader in the creation of innovative digital solutions in the healthcare sector and partner of the IRFSS on other projects, brought the partners to decide to create a Serious Game. This flexible tool, usable everywhere, appeared as the most adapted answer to this need of intense practice on various clinical situations. In the allocated time, every typology of patients couldn’t be addressed. Therefore, we chose to focus on the elderly problematic. All European countries share the same concerns regarding the care of this population. Health policies promote solutions permitting the elderly to stay at home, with interventions of home helpers and healthcare professionals.
This is how we associated a 5th partner, the city of Bègles, through its home support service, which enabled us to apprehend the situation of patients at home as best as we could.

The first version of PETRHA Serious Game that we created during these 2 years of partnership provides practice on clinical reasoning in geriatrics for European physiotherapy students. Many clinical cases based on real situations are proposed so that, thanks to repetition, they can acquire a methodology for collecting data, establishing a physiotherapy diagnosis and prioritizing the objectives. All the partners were involved in its development and today the game is now translated in 4 languages, which means that all the European students who wish can train themselves on the clinical cases proposed.

Beyond the Serious Game, we decided to create 2 other tools.

The second tool is a booklet of study on the elderly population enabling to enrich the serious game’s clinical cases thanks to the parameters studied. This work was led by the IRFSS and the home helpers of the city of Bègles. All European trainers can rely on this study translated in 4 languages to design their own clinical cases. This study can also be used as a model to study other populations.

Finally, the last tool is a MOOC, which completes the Serious Game. Its purpose is to help the users, students and trainers, to understand the game so that they can create clinical cases and play. They can get the information they need thanks to short explanatory videos and a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

The achievement of these 3 productions was made possible thanks to the great commitment of every partner. Added to the meetings and the training activities, they had working meetings almost every week. This enabled them to adjust the work with the fixed schedule.
In the end, the serious game is even more efficient than the originally defined objective. It was tested on a large scale during the European Petrha Cup and this test confirmed the attractiveness and the pedagogical interest of our productions. Today, some universities wish to join the PETRHA adventure by creating their own clinical cases and the students showed a true desire for learning thanks to this digital tool.

We are working on the pursuit of the project as the current partners have been contacted by other universities to work on other target populations. In the meantime, the work led with the home helpers for the creation of the study booklet drove the IRFSS and its academic partners to submit a new strategic partnership project called ATHOME. Selected in July 2017, its aim is to develop with 7 partners innovative solutions intended for European home helpers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 298329 Eur

Project Coordinator

IRFSS Aquitaine & Country: FR

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD PUBLICA DE NAVARRA
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DO PORTO
• COMMUNE DE BEGLES
• Groupe Interaction