AH1S18 - Biopsychosocial Foundations of Physiotherapy Practice 01 Sep 2022 - 31 Aug 2028 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: AH1S18
Module Title: Biopsychosocial Foundations of Physiotherapy Practice
Faculty: Faculty of Life Sciences and Education
Faculty Group: Allied Health and Chiropractic
Faculty Sub Group: Physiotherapy
Module Leader: Rhys Shorney
Module Team: Jonathon Duffin, Filipa Machado, Bethan Kent
First Intended Intake: SEP 2022 Final Year of Intake:
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 4
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100252 - physiotherapy
HECOS Code Weighting: 100

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 01 Sep 2022
Valid To 31 Aug 2028

Module Aims

The module with prepare students to practice with a biopsychosocial healthcare model of delivery. The students will learn about the healing process alongside pain neuroscience education and gain understanding of pain, persistent pain and develop the ability to help manage expectations of patients with pain.

Content Summary

The module will introduce the healing process to students. This will be delivered in order to help students understand the stages of healing and the physiological process that takes place.

Students will be taught about the different types of healthcare models such as bio-medical, patho-anatomical and biopsychosocial models for example, and helped understand the key distinctions that these models offer. These models will then be scrutinised while looking at the available research to help students understand the value and negative aspects associated with regards to physiotherapy healthcare delivery.

The students will be taken through a 12- stage pain neuroscience education clinic where pain neuroscience will be explained with the narrative of persistent back pain. This narrative will explain pain while providing real life context to the content so that students can understand the neuroscience with meaningful context. The module will facilitate students to be able to explain pain clearly to patients and through using key graphics and tools will be able to help patients understand the impact of pain on their daily function and lives.

The pain clinic will be delivered through a series of bespoke recorded sessions that will accompany key learning resources and tasks, so students will be taken through the pain neuroscience materials and time will be allocated for reflection at each stage.

Content for students will include:

- Neurophysiology of pain
- Nociception and nociceptive pathways and factors
- Neurons and synapses
- Action potentials
- Spinal inhibition and facilitation
- Peripheral sensitisation
- Central sensitisation
- Plasticity of the nervous system

The students will be afforded opportunity to practice delivering this education through use of simulated scenarios. Students will be required to demonstrate competency in delivering key PNE messages to people rather than patients, at this stage.

Developing the skills to deliver this information to patients in pain will be developed further through the course across multiple modules. The fundamentals will be established clearly during this module and students will understand the neuroanatomy and physiology of pain but critically how to explain this to people in a meaningful way.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 4
Seminar 8
Tutorial 12
Independent Study 72
Directed Study 92
Problem / challenge based learning 12
Total Hours Selected 200

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Demonstrate understanding of the Biopsychosocial Healthcare model in physiotherapy practice
LO2 Demonstrate understanding of the healing process and pain neuroscience education (PNE). Be able to teach others (Including Patients) the fundamentals relating to these key topics.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Student Choice 1 Produce a patient information resource that will be targeted to a given chosen patient population 0 N/A 100 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Student Choice 1

Reading List

Beckett, C. and Taylor, H. (2019) Human Growth and Development. London: Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.

Biddle, S., Mutrie, N., Gorely, T. and Faulkner, G. (2021) Psychology of Physical Activity: Determinants, Well-Being and Interventions. New York: Routledge.

Bolton, D. and Gillett, G. (2019) The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Bonder, B. (2021) Psychopathology and Function. New Jersey: Slack Incorporated.

Butler, D. and Moseley, L. (2013) Explain Pain. 2nd edition. Adelaide: Noi Group.

Coulter, A. (2011) Engaging patients in healthcare. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Damjanov, I., Morovic Perry, A. and Perry, K. (2021) Pathology for the Health Professions. Philadephia: Elsevier.

Gifford, L. (2021) Louis Gifford Aches and Pains Book One: Aches and Pains Sections 1-14 (1). Falmouth: Philippa Tindle.

Gifford, L. (2021) Louis Gifford Aches and Pains Book Two: Aches and Pains Sections 15-20 Nerve Root Sections 1-5 (2). Falmouth: Philippa Tindle.

Gifford, L. (2021) Louis Gifford Aches and Pains Book Three: Graded Exposure Sections 1-4 Case Histories Sections 1-4 (3).Falmouth: Philippa Tindle.

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Gormley-Fleming, E. and Peate, I. (2019). Fundamentals of children’s applied pathophysiology: An essential guide for nursing and healthcare students. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.

Marcus, B. and Forsyth, L. (2009) Motivating people to be physically active. 2nd ed. Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Mohan, H. (2018) Essential Pathology for Physiotherapy Students. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers.

Nijs, J. et al. (2014) ‘A modern neuroscience approach to chronic spinal pain: combining pain neuroscience education with cognition-targeted motor control training’, Physical therapy. 94 (5), 730–738.

Patestas, M. and Gartner, L. (2016) Textbook of Neuroanatomy. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons.

Sarafino, E. P. and Smith, T. W. (2022) Health Psychology: Biopsychosocial interactions. 10th edn. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Tonkin, A. and Whitaker, J. (eds) (2016) Play in healthcare for adults: using play to promote health and wellbeing across the adult lifespan. London: Routledge.

Waxman, S. (2020) Clinical Neuroanatomy. 29th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.