Initiating learning in physical therapy care for women with urinary incontinence: difficulties presented by academia and proposals to overcome

This qualitative, convergent-care study seeks to comprehend the difficulties presented by physical therapy academics initiating learning towards caring for women with urinary incontinence and to construct strategies to overcoming said difficulties, with theoreticalmethodological support from Liberation Pedagogy. Participants were 17 students in the class Urogynecological Physical Therapy in 2009.1. From participants’ observations and workshops, data emerged and resulted in four categories: difficulties in dealing with one’s sexuality; embarrassment sharing intimacy with colleagues; in interacting with women with incontinence; and to organizing the class, Urogynecological Physical Therapy. This study permits us to understand that even with such difficulties, dialogue and critical perspectives show themselves to be essential in collectively constructing proposals: premature approaches to sexuality; openness to dialogue in disciplines; group living experiences; and insertion in day-to-day realities of curricular activities of urogynecological physical therapy, making it possible to transform the initiation to learning process for this physical care.