Background: Hand-dexterity exercises have been widely used by healthcare professionals, such as surgeons and dentists, who rely on their manual skills to improve performance and outcomes; however, there is little evidence that investigates the effects of these exercises on the subjective self-efficacy of physical therapists.
Objective: To investigate the effect of hand dexterity exercises on subjectively reported self-efficacy of Physical Therapists.
Methods: Fifty Senior Physical Therapy students were divided into control (CG) and experimental (EG) groups. The CG received normal clinical training plus sham hand exercises, whereas the (EG) received normal clinical training with addition of real hand dexterity exercises. The interventions were performed for four weeks. The outcomes were hand dexterity and function measured using the Simple Test for Evaluating Hand Function (STEF) and physical therapist self-efficacy measured using the Physical Therapist Self-Efficacy questionnaire (PSE). Outcomes measures were taken at baseline and following the conclusion of the 4-week timeline.
Results: In the CG, no significant difference was observed in the STEF scores after the intervention period, whereas a significant difference was seen in EG favoring post-intervention scores (P=0.000). The between- group results showed a significant difference favoring the EG (P=0.000). For self-efficacy, the EG showed a significant difference in 11 questions post-intervention (P=0.001-0.049). The between -group results showed a significant difference favoring EG in 4 questions (P=0.002-0.039).
Conclusion: Hand dexterity exercises were seen to increase self-efficacy and confidence levels in the musculoskeletal domain when compared to sham hand dexterity exercises in undergraduate physical therapists.