Physical therapy education

[hijump]

hi everyone....
i am doing DPT (doctor of physical therapy, 2 years program) degree after my 4 years bachelors in Physical therapy.

every country is offering different post graduation degrees

the problem is...when we go to other country for higher education or for job...does the number of our academic years count or does name of the degree counts to get further admission/job?

after doing this DPT i will have 18 years of study..but still i will have
to go through evaluation procedure to know if i am eligible as graduate or a post graduate.

why cant we have ONE degree throughout the world with clearly mentioned academic years or credit hours as graduate as well as for post graduate degree....so that we dont have to study again when we move to other country?

what you guys think about this?

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[gcoe]

Hi hijump

Every country has different standards that it requires of overseas trained graduates and there is no one standard. Registration or licensing of physiotherapists in a state of country is a different matter from educational qualification as the former requires takes into account not only the content and quality of education but other aspects which are about protecting the public, such as fitness to practice in an ethical matter (eg no criminal record), tit to practice in terms of health etc. In addition although this is often never overtly discussed but registration and licencing authorities are in the business of controlling who can practice with their borders, and there are often political aspects of this - controlling immigration for example. At worst government and state authorities can behave in a xenophobic manner.

When it comes to educational qualifications I totally agree it would great if we had some form of international accreditation where an educational institution could apply to have its qualification recognised as meeting an internatinal standard. There could always be more than one standard so that different countries could choose the standard required to practice in their state.

Unfortunately I can't see it happening. Even if you could get the leaders in the profession to agree there is this issue of border control.

As for working out if qualifications are equivalent this is actually quite a difficult matter. For example In NZ, Australia, Ireland and Scotland four year bachelors degrees are the entry level degree and these degrees are have a reputation for being of a high standard. England only offers 3 year bachelors degrees for entry level. You have undertaken a four year bachelors degree and are completing a two year doctorate. However is your bachelor's degree of the same standard as ours. A clinical doctorate in Australia would take 3 years to complete. In our country such a doctorate doesn't exist but our masters degrees are two year degrees so would that be equivalent with yours? In the US a DPT is only a three year degree and is an entry level qualification but one completes a basic science bachelors prior to this. So wouldn't your qualification be way ahead of this? And so it goes on. Then there is the academic standing of the university and the school of physiotherapy within it. Not all programmes, even within a country are of anywhere near the same standard.

[hijump]

hi Matrix

this border issue is something which we cant force to change.... but atleast we should have an international body of physical therapy.
all medical lines have their international bodies eg ophthalmologists, pediatrics etc and they conduct world wide conferences and seminars which help not only in sharing the knowledge but to protect the rights of the professionals,
but,

i have not seen much happening on even WORLD PHYSICAL THERAPIST'S DAY
...........!
i am unable to understand why physical therapy is passive in development......i read an article which says PT assistants are one of the fastest growing profession.....WHY NOT PT itself?

for what you've said about more than one standard ... yes its good in a way that we have different ways to earn a foreign license.

i heard from a fellow therapist that in NZ any therapist can get license by submitting 12 thesis... and the therapist who has NZ's licence is exempt from license exam of AUS.....is it like that?

sadly in my country every city has its own PT program.....and course....

[gcoe]

Yes it would be something to put to the WCPT. This a role the WCPT could take on. As the international body they could set up a standard setting role in education

i heard from a fellow therapist that in NZ any therapist can get license by submitting 12 thesis...

No not really. The physiotherapy board in NZ has an unusual system in that it sets out the competencies that the overseas applicant must provide evidence that they possess. The Board looks at a range of evidence including education transcripts, Post education experience, higher education written essays etc. It is actually quite exacting and many don't make it.

and the therapist who has NZ's licence is exempt from license exam of AUS.....is it like that?

NZ and Australia have a close relationship in many political and economic spheres. We have a mutual agreement that Australian registered have a fast track registration here and vice versa. The educational standard between the countries is also very similar so it is a good arrangement.

[hijump]

thanks Gcoe...
i guess one should know directly from concerning bodies whenever one wants to apply...rules and regulations keep on changing..