Dear PT colleagues,
I am pleased that Mr. Douglas White has chosen my email as a point of
departure to discuss about PT education in the US and around the world. I
only have 2 comments to make.
Ms. Jackie Waterfield astutely pointed out that “it may not be the length of
any programme or at what level that is important but the quality of it in
terms of content and the delivery approach”. Unfortunately, she did not
offer any insight as to the appropriate length of programme that give us the
best chance to prepare the students adequately for the complexities of
practice. Can schools do that (in good conscience) within 3 or 4 years? This
can be a daunting task considering that some PT schools around the world are
teaching concepts from Maitland, McKenzie, Mulligan, Edwards, Elvey, Butler,
Travell & Simons, Jull, Richardson, Hodges, Hides, Kaltenborn, Cyriax… With
the exponential expansion and explosion of biomedical knowledge, where do we
draw the line? Mr Douglas White wrote in 1993 that “diagnostic imaging
(particularly when it involves relatively new techniques such as the MRI) is
a subject that is not always covered in-depth in the entry-level physical
therapy education curriculum” (PT Magazine 1993 June). How true is this
statement now?
I agree with Ms. Jackie Waterfield’s statement that “there will always be a
point at which a 'formal' taught course must end so somewhere at any level
lifelong learning skills must be developed. Higher degrees are no guarantee
of questioning minds”. We always expect refinement of practice and lifelong
learning to take place (or do they?) after formal taught course, but such an
expectation does not automatically obviate the necessity to prepare the PT
competently even BEFORE practice.
Regards,
Pua Yong Hao
Singapore
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