Statutory Declaration for New Zealand Physio Registration

[Pico]

It seems that most documents have to be notified, not just certificates of passport and university certificates. Even past presentations, papers published, etc have to be notified. This will cost huge amount of money in most countries as I think they charge per page or per document. I am currently in Canada, if I want all pages to be certified by a lawyer, it will cost me upto a few thousands. However, if I can send all the documents back to my home country with my authorization to my family member to go to the department to do that for me, it can be done free of charge by a department of the government.

However, the NZ application requires witnesing of signatures (Me and the lawyer).
Will it be OK if I have the less important documents to be certified back in my home country, e.g. past presentations, papers published, previous job descriptions, own continuous professional portfolio, then have the rest of the documents and the whole finished portfolio to be certified by the lawyer in Canada and complete the witnessing of signatures in Canada?

Will the NZ board accept two different notarization bodies? Or any other ways to reduce the cost?

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[Denise]

Hi Pico,

Yes all papers you are using as evidence need to be notified.

If you are going to send copies of Documents (diplomas, certificates, transcripts, etc) they need to be certified. If the original documents are in English, I am pretty positive you can mail them all to your family to be certified in your home country. If in another language , you will need official translation.

Ok, now about the ''less important documents'', you can have them notified by asking a staff from your university to sign and date them or a former employer, when applicable. For example, I asked my course director to sign the copy of my final thesis; lecturers to sign presentations. In all cases, I also asked for a short declaration saying that ‘I’ have done such paper/ presentation. (It also included their position at the time, the subject, the number of pages- if applicable, and the date it was presented.)
So, having all those documents/papers set in your portifolio, I believe the lawyer will only be necessary to sign that page (39 – Statutory Declaration) from the application form.
Having a notarization body from your home country and a lawyer from Canada to deal with your documents should not be a problem to the NZ Board.

If by any chance, the Board does not accept one or other document, or if incorrect, they will let you know by sending a letter and it will give you sufficient information to do it right next time. So, do not get frustrated if that happens, it seems quite common...

[Pico]

Hi Denise,

Thank you so much. You have solved one of my concerns and worries about the application.

As I had graduated over 7 years, I am not sure how much support/assistance I can get from the university apart from the 'standard' stuff, i.e. syllabus, transcripts. However, I think I will send all the important and less important documents back to my home country to have them notified all at once. I have just started doing the portfolio for the application. Still a long way to go

Thanks again.

[Denise]

Hi there Pico,

think of all you can gather as evidence from your postgraduate expericence: publications, seminars, case studies, short courses, postgraduate courses, referee's letters, assessment forms, research projects, voluntary work,etc.

Pico, knowing you are currently in Canada, do you have a licence to work there as a physiotherapist? Because if you do, you could apply for a registration in WA, Australia and after that, apply for any other Australiand state which has an agreement with New Zealand and then, apply for New Zealand registration. I am almost sure that this information is correct. It seems like a long way to go but it might be much less painfull!

[Pico]

Thanks Denise.

I am currently working in Canada but I was not Canadian-trained. I went through the credentialling process and the national exams.

I tried to email WA board and just mentioned that I was registered in Canada (without saying I wasn't Canadian-trained). The reply I got was a standard one: Only physio graduates from the universities in the list can directly register in WA. Actually the list contains all the universities which train physio in Canada. In my credentialling process, my qualification was quoted as 'equivalent to Canadian-trained'. So, logically, I thought I was elligible to register. However, it seems that officially, the WA does not accept it.

But maybe I should write clearly my case and ask.

[Pico]

Hi Denise,
I wonder if you can advise me on sub-competencies 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.3 and 10.1.
In some other threads, reflective statements are recommended for the above sub-competencies but I am not sure if that means trying to find the answers of the ‘indicators’ of each of them e.g. Describe the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, etc. Otherwise, I don't know what I should write. Or is there another way just to prove I understand but no need to write so much.

For some competencies/sub-competencies, I wrote ‘abide by code of ethics’ ‘abide by legislations’ ‘abide by standards for practice for physiotherapists’ in the country I am practising. Shall I make a copy of the parts which I am using as evidence e.g. parts about cultural respects, consent, etc. and have them notified?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Cheers,
Hilda

[gcoe]

If you go to this page on the NZSP site:

General : NZ Society of Physiotherapists

and select the document:

NZSP Guidelines for Cultural Competence in Physiotherapy Education and Practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

this document not only contains much of the information you need to know about the treaty but also much more about how cultural competence is practised in physiotherapy in NZ.

the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document and as NZ does not have a constitution this treaty is one of the most important documents establishing the legal status on New Zealanders. It defines the relationship and rights and responsibilities that the Crown (and therefore subsequently the NZ government) and Maori enjoy towards one another.The treaty is enshrined in much of our legislation.

The Treaty is not without controversies. For example the Waitangi Tribunal is still hearing historical land claims of land confiscations by the government and non Maori citizens from Maori.

In order to make the treaty a living document it requires interpreting. There are various versions of principles of the treaty but the one contained in this document is fundamentally how the treaty is interpreted in health care. So understanding these principles is a key responsibility of health professionals. In NZ you are quite likely to be asked to describe these principles in a job interview with a district health board. So it is more than useful for getting through the registration process