CAPR PCE Written key terms

A predictable, characteristic limitation of passive range of motion in a joint that suggests the entire joint capsule is involved, such as external rotation being most restricted at the shoulder.

The quality of the resistance a clinician feels at the limit of a joint's passive range of motion, described as firm, soft, hard, or abnormal, which helps identify the tissue limiting movement.

The accessory sliding or rolling of one joint surface on another that a person cannot perform voluntarily but that is needed for normal joint motion; assessed and addressed with manual therapy.

An ordinal 0-to-5 scale used to grade a muscle's strength by observing or resisting a contraction and accounting for the effect of gravity, where 0 means no detectable contraction and 5 means normal strength.

The movement of referred or radiating pain from a distal area toward the spine during repeated spinal movements or sustained postures, which is a favourable finding in mechanical neck or back pain.

A hyperirritable spot within a taut band of skeletal muscle that is tender on compression and can refer pain or tingling to a distant site in a recognizable pattern.

A velocity-dependent increase in muscle tone resulting from an upper motor neuron lesion, producing stiffness that resists rapid stretch and can interfere with movement, positioning, and function.

A series of rapid, involuntary, rhythmic contractions and relaxations of a muscle produced by sudden sustained stretch in a person with an upper motor neuron lesion, most often tested at the ankle.

Damage to motor pathways in the brain or spinal cord that produces increased tone, exaggerated reflexes, spasticity, and a positive Babinski sign, rather than the flaccidity seen with lower motor neuron damage.

The capacity of the nervous system to alter its structure and function in response to practice, experience, and injury, which underpins learning and recovery after neurological damage.

A loss of coordination and smoothness in voluntary movement, often caused by cerebellar dysfunction, producing unsteady gait, overshooting or undershooting of targets, and difficulty with rapid alternating movements.

An 18-item instrument that scores how much assistance a person needs for everyday motor and cognitive tasks, from total assistance to complete independence, and is used to track rehabilitation outcomes.

The fraction of a person's forced vital capacity that is exhaled in the first second of a forced breath; a reduced ratio indicates airflow obstruction such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A submaximal test recording the greatest distance a person can walk in six minutes along a level corridor, used to estimate functional exercise capacity and to track change over time.

A self-report scale, usually scored 6 to 20 or 0 to 10, on which a person rates how hard they feel they are working, used to prescribe and monitor exercise intensity.

Breathing and positioning strategies, such as the active cycle of breathing or huffing, intended to loosen and move retained secretions from the lungs toward the mouth for expectoration.

Placing a person in a position that raises the lung segment being drained above the trachea so gravity assists mucus movement, typically combined with percussion, vibration, and breathing exercises.

A non-invasive method of estimating the percentage of hemoglobin carrying oxygen by passing light through a translucent tissue such as a fingertip, interpreted alongside the person's overall clinical picture.

Localized damage to skin and underlying tissue, usually over a bony prominence, caused by sustained pressure, shear, or friction, ranging from non-blanchable redness to full-thickness tissue loss.

A method for estimating the percentage of total body surface area affected by a burn by assigning fixed percentages to body regions, used to guide fluid resuscitation and transfer decisions.

Swelling of a limb or body region caused by accumulation of protein-rich fluid when lymphatic drainage is impaired, managed with compression, manual drainage techniques, exercise, and skin care.

A six-item tool scoring sensory perception, moisture, activity, mobility, nutrition, and friction or shear to estimate a person's risk of developing a pressure injury.

A patient's voluntary agreement to an assessment or treatment after receiving and understanding information about its nature, risks, benefits, reasonable alternatives, and the consequences of refusing.

The range of activities and responsibilities that a regulated health professional is authorized by legislation, education, and competence to perform, as further described in professional standards.

The obligation of a health professional to act in the patient's best interests rather than their own, maintaining trust, loyalty, and fair dealing within the therapeutic relationship.

A failure to meet the standard of care expected of a reasonably competent practitioner in similar circumstances, causing harm that was a reasonably foreseeable result of that failure.

The limits that keep the therapeutic relationship focused on the patient's needs and prevent inappropriate personal, financial, or sexual involvement between the professional and the patient.

A legal obligation to disclose specified concerns, such as suspected child abuse or an unsafe colleague, to the appropriate authority, sometimes without the patient's consent.

A structured handover tool standing for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation, used to give another health professional a concise, organized account of a patient's condition.

A communication method in which the patient restates information in their own words so the clinician can confirm understanding and correct any misunderstanding before proceeding.

A collaborative counselling style using open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries to help a person articulate and strengthen their own reasons for changing a health behaviour.

A practice in which the clinician examines power imbalances and their own assumptions so that care is experienced by the patient as respectful of their culture, identity, and history.

A framework for framing an answerable clinical question using Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome, which guides the literature search and keeps it focused on a decision.

A structured summary of all research on a focused question, using explicit and reproducible search, appraisal, and synthesis methods, often including meta-analysis of pooled results.

A range of values calculated from sample data that is likely to contain the true population value; wider intervals indicate less precision, and intervals crossing zero suggest no clear difference.

The number of people who must receive a treatment for one additional person to benefit; it is the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction, and smaller numbers mean greater benefit.

The probability of a given test result in people who have the condition divided by the probability of that result in people who do not, showing how much a result shifts the estimated probability of disease.

The smallest change in an outcome score that patients would regard as meaningful and that could justify altering their care, as distinct from a change that is merely statistically significant.

Reliability is the consistency of repeated measurements under similar conditions, while validity is whether an instrument measures what it claims to; a test can be reliable without being valid.