Planned approaches to business and school partnerships. Does it make a difference? The business perspective.

In many countries, schools are encouraged to link with business to add authenticity to learning. The number of these business-school partnerships has shown a marked increase over the last twenty years. Traditionally researchers investigating these partnerships have focussed on the schools' perspectives (Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2010, pp. 32-33), however this New Zealand research has focused solely on the business perspective of established school partnerships. The study used a mixed methods approach utilising both online survey and semi-structured interviews. Ten out of the forty participating businesses surveyed used a brokering organisation as a way of developing and maintaining these partnerships and some developed rationales to support the partnership. This study investigated the value of using brokering organisations, rationales and designated staff to support business-school partnerships. Findings indicate that brokers and designated staff play a very effective role in enhancing business-school links, and more benefits are perceived when a rationale has been established. It is anticipated that these findings will support the development and success of business-school partnerships.

Role of the advanced practice physiotherapist in decreasing surgical wait times.

The role of the advanced practice physiotherapist (APP) in outpatient orthopedic clinics has been present in Ontario for over five years. These professionals have additional duties beyond those of a regular physiotherapist in order to screen patients pre- and post-operatively, triage patients for surgery, prescribe conservative management and monitor patients on an ongoing basis. The purpose of this role is to improve patient access to timely surgical care by reducing wait times for hip and knee replacement surgeries. Several positive outcomes have been reported in the literature. It has been established that an APP can effectively manage over 30% of the patients referred to a surgeon for hip or knee replacement surgery because these patients do not require surgery; rather, they require conservative management.

Easing the burden for joint replacement wait times: the role of the expanded practice physiotherapist.

There is a critical shortage of orthopedic surgeons in Canada today due to a decreasing number of surgeons practising here and the increased demand for their services from a population with record-high rates of osteoarthritis and obesity. A method of managing the increased demand for total joint replacement was implemented and evaluated. A physiotherapist and orthopedic surgeons performed assessments on patients referred for surgery and found that 34% did not require surgery and that all patients required appropriate conservative management. This has led to the development and implementation of a model of care that not only meets orthopedic demands but improves treatment options for orthopedic patients.

Reducing hip and knee replacement wait times: an expanded role for physiotherapists in orthopedic surgical clinics.

This paper describes a research project that examined an expanded role for physiotherapists to provide pre- and post-operative consultation to patients with hip and knee complaints with the overall goal to save the surgeon's time and improve patient throughput, thereby reducing wait times.