The role of the physiotherapist in the therapeutic team as perceived by nursing staff in light of the changes introduced by the Physiotherapy Profession Act of 15 September 2015.

Aim:
The aim of the study was to analyse the factors influencing the quality of cooperation with a physiotherapist in the opinion of nursing staff working in hospital facilities. An additional aim was to assess the role of the physiotherapist in the medical team by identifying their responsibilities in the therapeutic process from the point of view of the nursing representatives.

Material and methods:
The study involved 355 nursing staff working in district, provincial or national hospitals and various levels of reference. A purposive sampling method was used in the study. The tool used was an original survey questionnaire.

Results:
There were 355 respondents to the survey. The vast majority (77%) of respondents believed that the physiotherapist should be a member of the therapeutic team. More than 84% of respondents rated this collaboration as very good or good. According to the respondents, the most important factors include the physiotherapist's level of knowledge, ability to work in a team and interpersonal competence. In the opinion of the respondents, it is worth conducting educational activities to improve the work of the therapeutic team.

Conclusions:
This study has shown that the implementation of the Act on the profession of physiotherapist into the Polish legal order is only the beginning of the process of facilitating cooperation between members of interdisciplinary therapeutic teams in practice. Education turns out to be indispensable. As the results show, it is worthwhile to educate the nursing staff in order to improve the therapeutic process and the effectiveness of communication between health care professionals.