Continuing Education for Advanced Manual and Manipulative Physiotherapists in Canada: A Survey of Perceived Needs

Abstract

Purpose: Our purpose was to determine advanced manual and manipulative physiotherapists' (AMPTs') current use and awareness of continuing education (CE) opportunities; to establish their perceived CE needs by identifying facilitators and barriers to participation; and to explore the association of demographics with CE needs. Methods: A questionnaire was e-mailed to 456 registered members of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy. Data analyses using frequencies and percentages of total responses and t-tests for group comparisons were performed. Results: One hundred thirty-three (29.2%) participants responded. Most lived in an urban region and worked predominantly in direct patient care. More respondents reported engaging in informal CE than in formal CE. Hands-on or practical workshops were the preferred CE format. Common barriers to CE included professional commitments and cost and time of travel; facilitators included interest in the topic and increasing knowledge and competency. AMPTs with less physical therapy experience found cost to be a greater barrier and were more interested in mentorship programs and CE as a means to obtain credentials. Conclusions: AMPTs' preferred CE formats are inconsistent with the CE opportunities in which they participate. CE initiatives for AMPTs should include hands-on training and should account for time and cost to make CE opportunities more readily available to them.Key Words: education, continuing; musculoskeletal manipulations; physical therapy modalities. RÉ SUMÉObjectif : É tablir l'utilisation actuelle et le degré de sensibilisation des physiothé rapeutes spé cialisé s en thé rapie manuelle et manipulation (AMPT) des possibilité s de formation continue (FC); é tablir les besoins en formation continue perc¸us de cette clientè le en identifiant les é lé ments facilitateurs et les obstacles à leur participation à la FC; et explorer les possibles associations entre les donné es dé mographiques et les besoins en FC. Mé thode : Un questionnaire a é té envoyé aux 456 membres inscrits à l'Acadé mie canadienne de thé rapie manuelle. Des analyses des donné es à l'aide de fré quences et de pourcentages du nombre total de ré pondants et des tests t pour la comparaison des groupes ont é té ré alisé s. Ré sultats : Au total, 133 participants (29,2 %) ont ré pondu. La plupart vivaient en milieu urbain et travaillaient principalement à des soins directs aux patients. Un plus grand nombre de ré pondants ont dit participer à de la FC informelle et non à de la FC plus officielle. Les ateliers pratiques sont la formule privilé gié e pour la FC. Les principaux obstacles à la FC sont les engagements professionnels, de mê me que les coû ts et le temps de dé placement; parmi les é lé ments facilitateurs, citons l'inté rê t pour les sujets abordé s et la possibilité d'accroître ses connaissances et ses compé tences. Les physiothé rapeutes moins expé rimenté s ont mentionné les coû ts de la FC comme é tant pour eux un plus grand obstacle, et se sont dits plus inté ressé s par...

Pragmatic Implementation of a Stratified Primary Care Model for Low Back Pain Management in Outpatient Physical Therapy Settings: Two-Phase, Sequential Preliminary Study

“…Another strength of the study is that, compared with previous studies, 2 the stratified care education content provided was brief, but similar outcomes were obtained. Previous studies 53,54 have indicated that one of the most significant barriers to attending postprofessional education courses is time. Therefore, it was our intent to provide the necessary education for this study in reasonable intervals that also accommodated clinicians' schedules (ie, 8 hours over multiple sessions) in order to improve retention rates and be consistent with our pragmatic approach.…”

Ordering Diagnostic Imaging: A Survey of Ontario Physiotherapists' Opinions on an Expanded Scope of Practice

“…These factors include practitioner interest, educational needs, and barriers to and facilitators of the uptake of the new practice. 9,[20][21][22][23] Although studies have examined educational programs for DI in other provinces (e.g., Alberta, New Brunswick) and internationally, 24 as well as the outcomes of integrating advanced practitioners into health care systems, 5,8,9,[24][25][26] no studies to date have examined physiotherapists' specific interest in ordering DI.…”

Establishing assessment criteria for clinical reasoning in orthopedic manual physical therapy: a consensus-building study

“…Moreover, we recognize that a response rate of 37% in the initial round represents the low end of acceptable response rates for surveys in general; 19 however, our response rates are very similar to those found in a study comparing mail surveys and internet-based surveys 33 and in other studies using webbased methods to survey OMPTs. 34 …”