[When graduate education is interested in renewal of rehabilitation practices: study of needs]

In order to meet the new challenges facing the professional practice in rehabilitation, a study of practitioners in the rehabilitation field in Québec was undertaken to evaluate their needs in terms of continuing education in graduate level studies.

A total of 99 participants were involved in focus groups and phone interviews. An analysis of the content of the discussions was performed.

According to this analysis, the participants wished to develop skills that could be divided into two main categories of competencies: the development of the "self as a tool", that is improving the practitioner's ability to show insight into his professional practice, and the "self as a service provider", that is developing knowledge in the cognitive area associated with the improvement in the quality of service. In addition, the participants favored different teaching methods, such as intensive teaching preferably on week-ends as well as short term training programs (9 to 15 credits).

This study succeeded in identifying the special needs of practitioners in order to face the changes in health services. The need to create a graduate program in rehabilitation was highlighted and the participants were enthusiastic at the thought of the creation of such a program.