title: Learning physiotherapy: students' ways of experiencing the patient encounter.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper was to describe and analyse the impact of formal education and professional experience on physiotherapy students' ways of experiencing interaction within a patient encounter.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups of physiotherapy students were interviewed on two occasions; during the second and last term of their formal education programme, and during the last term and after 18 months' professional experience. Data were subjected to a qualitative analysis. Changes in conceptions between the two interview occasions were described quantitatively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects' ways of experiencing interaction within a patient encounter could be described in four main categories: Mutuality; Technicalism; Authority and Juxtaposition. Mutuality and Technicalism denoted an integration of the communicative and problem-solving processes involved in the encounter, the former category from a patient-centred and the latter from a physiotherapist-centred perspective. Authority and Juxtaposition denoted a separation of the processes, the former from a physiotherapist-centred perspective and the latter from a patient-centred one.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show a trend as regards direction of change in conceptions from separated to integrated perspectives on the communicative and problem-solving processes after the formal education programme. After 18 months' professional practice the Mutuality category dominated.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkopings Universitet, Sweden. madab@inr.lui.se
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dahlgren
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004517:Education, Professional; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000193:education*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013336:Students, Health Occupations; D013548:Sweden