Affiliations: Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan,
NSW, Australia
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Carole James, School of Health
Sciences, Hunter Building, University of Newcastle, University Drive,
Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. Tel.: +61 03 94 392863; Fax: +61 02 49 216984;
E-mail: Carole.James@newcastle.edu.au
Abstract: Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCE's) are part of practice in work
injury prevention and rehabilitation, and are designed to define an
individual's functional abilities or limitations in the context of safe,
productive work tasks. Qualitative research methodology was used to investigate
the attitudes and behaviours of health professionals in relation to FCE use.
The study aimed to identify why health professionals chose a particular FCE,
and to identify what factors influence health professionals' clinical
judgements when providing results and recommendations for the individual being
assessed. Five health professionals from the Hunter Region of New South Wales,
Australia, participated in semi-structured, individual interviews using a
phenomenological approach. Following inductive analysis of the data, four
themes reflecting participants' attitudes and behaviours of FCE use emerged: i)
referrals and expectations, including why and when the assessment is completed
ii) outcomes, – what the results aim to provide iii) workplace/practice/usage
issues and iv) skills of the assessor. The results indicate the need for
further research on the clinical utility of FCE's. A large scale quantitative
study would allow results to be generalised to a wider community of FCE
users.
