TY - JOUR T1 - Clinical placements effects on physiotherapy students interest in cardiorespiratory specialty JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P1365 AU - Marie Carmen Valenza AU - Irene Torres-Sanchez AU - Isabel Torres-Costoso AU - Irene Cabrera-Martos AU - Gerald Valenza-Demet Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P1365.abstract N2 - Clinical placements are an important part of the training of health professionals. Although much value is placed on the clinical environment as a place to learn, there is scarce direct evidence of its effectiveness. The main objective of this study was to explore the effects of clinical placements in various subclinical areas such as cardiorespiratory physiotherapy(CRP). Although interest in CRP as a specialty has already been studied, the influence of clinical experience on this decision had never been taken into account before.A pre- and post-placement questionnaire about students’ interest in different physiotherapy subspecialties. Two hundred and fifty forms were distributed among two schools of Physiotherapy in Spain (Toledo and Granada).Students with a cardiorespiratory clinical placement showed a significant change(p=0.001) in their interest in cardiorespiratory physiotherapy.Clinical placements are a central part of the education of health professionals. Such placements seem to have a definitive impact on health care students’ specialty interest.The present study found that specific CRP clinical placements positively influenced students’ intention to specialize in this area. This highlights the importance of offering clinical placements in all subareas of physiotherapy to give undergraduate students the opportunity to make a better choice. ER -