In the current health care climate physiotherapists working in acute hospitals are not exempt
from evidence-based practice pressures. Clinicians are required to incorporate clinical
expertise with patient values and the best available evidence. As physiotherapists are
ideally placed to intervene in the management of acutely ill inpatients, who are at a high-risk
of complications, the decision-making process for the commonly performed task of
mobilization requires understanding. Presented in part one of this series are the indicators …

The evaluation of patients' functional outcome and mobility status is of critical importance to
all physiotherapists, including those practising in acute care. However, the difficulty in
attributing aspects of improvement to physiotherapy intervention has made outcome
measurement a complex process. Furthermore, a general literature search failed to identify
an immediately appropriate evaluative outcome measure to guide physiotherapists'
reasoning or monitor patients' in the acute care setting. Without adequate instruments to …