Is Physiotherapy becoming a stronger profession or is it being diluted by others?

[physiobob]

This question is a simple poll to ask for a view on whether you feel physiotherapy is becoming more independent and stronger as a unique and valued therapy, or whether your feel that it is being slowly diluted and made less independent by the advancement/encroachment of other professional groups.

[Dashrath]

Yes, Of course Physiotherapy is becoming a stronger profession as time goes on. Now people become very familiar to physiotherapy and other professionals are also giving importance to physiotherapy.But I don't think that it is independant still.

[Dhidhak]

It is a stronger profession ever since but i have to say that training and practice differ from every region. And the strengthening multi disciplinary approach makes our profession more challenging not to be diluted by others - the margin between the other discpline is not so wide, there will always be overlap but i still believe the physical and personal (we listen to our patients) approach of our profession makes us different than the rest of our team members.

[Quickstart]

Originally Posted by Dhidhak

...there will always be overlap but i still believe the physical and personal (we listen to our patients) approach of our profession makes us different than the rest of our team members.

I agree with that somewhat; because we have such intimate and constant contact, good physiotherapists are able to develop quite a bond with patients. However, it does depend very much on the skill of the practitioner, not only their profession, as I have also met some wonderful doctors, nurses, speech paths, OT's and AHA's who have just as wonderful interpersonal skills as my fellow physio's.

Anyway... onto the poll. Physiotherapy is constantly undergoing some fantastic changes that pave the way for a smoother and more efficient health service. The level of evidence-based practice has changed dramatically, as has community-based knowledge of the profession and increased respect. As a 4th Year Physio student I have found that when I mention my course, people tend to react the same way. Their eyebrows lift, and a look (of what I hesitate to say) awe crosses their face. It is almost as if you are lifted up into higher echelons in their mind based on that - seemingly minor - piece of information.

As a nearly graduated student I am very excited to see where our wonderful profession will take us in the near future.

[Baby_Physio_Kieran]

From my rather limited experience, I believe physiotherapy is at a crossroads.
It has the potential to become a well recognised and highly respected profession, but it is my opinion that we, as physios are too modest. We do not sell ourselves, nor the benefits of our interventions and advice, as highly as we should do.

For example, the rise of pilates has been enormous over the last few years. Why is this? - because it has been heavily endorsed and publicised.
...and what is pilates, if it is not a set of core stability exercises which are remarkably similar to those that have been taught in physiotherapy outpatient departments around the world.

If we do not stand up and take the credit we deserve soon, then the profession as a whole may eventually fade further into obscurity.

[estherderu]

Physiotherapy, physical therapy, having two names for the same profession doesn't help either.....
In the old east european countries and even in west germany physio's do what the docter tells them. The medics in germany have slowly misvormed the profession because they will prescibe a certain therapy without knowing exactly what it is and have stopped prescribing others. The german connective tissue massage ( teilrich leube-dicke) is hardly ever used anymore because of this. You can be told to give lymf drainage without any real oedema.......On the other hand the countries professional organisation has not gone into protest about it.


In countries like holland, australia, canada and the usa we do what we think is right . At a yearly conference in holland in november last year a usa delegate warned us that the same is happening in some states of the usa.
doctors are buying practises with their own therapists and telling them what to do.
I agree with baby physio kieran that we have never really promoted ourselves enough. I used to think that it had something to do with the fact that many women are physios. (oeps... I am one you know...).

I think we have to stop acting like assistants and start reacting like professionals. In a lot of countries this is the normal practise but in a lot of others it isn't yet..... Good luck to you all#
esther

[shashidhar1234]

hi to all i think physio therapy and music therapy may have a good combination if we use them properly suggestion needed plz reply back

[Physio-Oms]

I believe verry strongly, that PT is goin up the stairs and very quickly ans drastically!
in my country, its been voted no 8 among the most successful professions in the world. Not remarkable....but we are getting somewhere!

[estherderu]

dear colleague, which country would that be??

esther

[shinydan]

ofcourse...physiotherapy is a stronger profession,,never diluted by thers...it has its own value in many countries,, especially in the european countries....

[daniel_sadana80]

yup
i believe physiotherapy profession will increase....

[kynamite]

As long as the education physio students stays at a high standards, imrpovements should continue!

[trendytiger]

yeh physiotherapy is becoming stronger
as we know our multidiciplinary approach is the strength we got which no other professionals got.

for example; a doctor in master of neurosurgery could deal his own subjects and he he has his own boundaries and a diabetoligst has his own boundaries

but we physiotherapist can understand and go ahead all fields.
and this makes as so proud

[sharileedahl]

I agree that some of the views that physiotherapy is being "diluted" is based on the promotion of our profession. We need to sell what we do. With the strong emphasis on evidence-based practice, we have a lot of research at our hands to ensure that other health professionals recognize our knowledge base. BUT...they don't read our research (and we don't read much of theirs!). So we have to market ourselves to them. Although a doctor's referral is not required for treatment in Canada (and in many other countries), doctors are still my main referral source. So we need to ensure docs know exactly what we do. However, related to that, maybe the docs wouldn't be our main referral source and clients would self-refer if they knew what we did.

As for the comment about other services taking over like Pilates. I have to argue that point simply because retraining "core stability" is SO MUCH MORE than just having someone go through a set of exercises (particularly someone who has had an injury....i.e. our clientele). Doing exercise with good technique is important and enough for most but it's not enough for those folks with injuries.

While we and our professional associations are trying to market our profession to a larger community, as therapists we can do some pretty easy marketing by doing what we do. We have the knowledge to do a thorough assessment, to critically evaluate our findings, to plan a treatment plan etc. etc. and most importantly.....to EDUCATE our clients. Although some of them just want us to "fix them" most are really interested and reassured when we cite research, talk about a conference we were at, show them pictures in the anatomy text etc etc etc. We also need to know what everyone else (other members of our health care team) does so we can refer appropriately and bounce thoughts/ideas off each other. So basically, we need to market ourselves by taking the time to really apply all the knowledge we have!!!