Telerehabilitation as a Strategy Toward Flexible Learning in the Rehabilitation Sciences in a Developing Country Amid the Enduring COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background:At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person clinical exposure of Physical Therapy (PT) interns in various regions of the world, including the Philippines, was suspended for safety reasons. To resume internship training, telerehabilitation was adopted in several academic institutions, such as the Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU). However, our Rehabilitation Sciences faculty and students were unprepared for the sudden shift to virtual teaching-learning methods.Objective:We hereby present our local experience in incorporating telerehabilitation in our clinical training and patient service.Methods:We conducted the following steps toward redesigning our PT internship curriculum: (1) review of existing national guidelines on flexible learning; (2) analysis of capabilities and limitations of our students and teachers to engage in flexible learning; and (3) planning for means to capacitate them for shifting to flexible learning.Findings:In our curricular redesign, we adapted the Flexible Learning Framework, consisting of the following components: students’ virtual experience, faculty and staff development, flexible learning instructional design, shared and aligned governance, institutional policy and infrastructure, and quality assurance.Conclusion:Due to the lack of formal inclusion of telerehabilitation in the national PT internship curriculum pre-pandemic and the need to quickly update our clinical program during the pandemic, our experience in evaluating and building our capacities toward developing a telerehabilitation program can serve as an example for other rehabilitation disciplines and academic institutions amid and beyond the pandemic.