Line Merete Giusti
Doctoral research fellow at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
I have 17 years of clinical experience as a physiotherapist, mainly working with patients who has survived trauma, patients who suffer from mental disorders, and in general patients with complex musculoskeletal disorders and orthopedic issues.
I have a clinical master's degree in psychomotor physiotherapy, and my master's thesis is about refugees experiences with physiotherapy and their encounters with the Norwegian health care system. The refugees narratives were collected in individual in-depth interviews, and then processed into poetic representations. The poetic representations were dicussed in light of the ethics of Knud Ejler Løgstrup and theories on migration health.
I am since December 2024 doing my PhD-thesis over a course of four years, with a 25% post as a university lecturer in the master's program in psychomotor physiotherapy at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Tell us about your project!
The smartphone app "Pust Deg Bedre" (PDB) was developed to facilitate adherence to evidence-based guidelines for tailored breathing and airway clearance techniques, targeting patients with various forms of lung-related diseases, caregivers, and physiotherapists to enhance self-management.
The PDB project is an 8-week intervention with 6-month follow-up, where patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are being taught by physiotherapists how to use PDB in managing their COPD symptoms. This PhD project aims to 1) explore the patients’ experiences with physiotherapy treatment and self-management of their symptoms with the use of the PDB app 2) explore the physiotherapists’ experiences with the use of the PDB app in physiotherapy treatment 3) explore how participating in the PDB project has impacted on the physiotherapists and their clinical practice.
The project is qualitative, and the basis for analysis will be video recordings of clinical encounters between patients and physiotherapists where the PDB app is in use, individual video supported in-depth interviews with patients and physiotherapists, and individual in-depth interviews with physiotherapists six months after the intervention.
“ The PDB project is an 8-week intervention with 6-month follow-up, where patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are being taught by physiotherapists how to use PDB in managing their COPD symptoms”
— Line Merete Giusti on her research project “Physiotherapy by smartphone app for promoting self-management in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – an Interpersonal Process Recall Study”