Background: True seven day a week acute care physical therapy (PT) coverage is rare. Our facility is one of a few in Canada that has increased weekend PT coverage on medicine units to seven days of full PT staffing levels.
Objective: This article investigates the perspectives of physical therapists involved in the change with the focus on the emotional experiences of those therapists.
Methods: Thematic analysis of interview and focus group transcripts with 18 physical therapist and 2 manager participants were aligned with four themes of: 1) optimism, hope and excitement; 2) frustration, guilt, and resentment; 3) fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and vulnerability; and 4) ambivalence, neutrality, and impartiality.
Results: Although there were several perceived benefits to quality of care and work/life balance, participants' comments also reflected: frustration, guilt, and resentment related to the rapid implementation of the change and the impact of altered work schedules.
Conclusions: Participants emphasized the need to discuss large changes with staff prior to implementation in order to prevent frustration and resentment. Participants also felt that increased acute care PT coverage over seven days is valuable, but other allied health professions also need a proportional increase in staffing to improve hospital flow.
Keywords: Qualitative; acute care; physical therapy; staffing; weekend coverage.