Continuing education for advanced manual and manipulative physiotherapists in Canada: a survey of perceived needs

Our purpose was to determine advanced manual and manipulative physiotherapists' (AMPTs') current use and awareness of continuing education (CE) opportunities; to establish their perceived CE needs by identifying facilitators and barriers to participation; and to explore the association of demographics with CE needs.

A questionnaire was e-mailed to 456 registered members of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy. Data analyses using frequencies and percentages of total responses and t-tests for group comparisons were performed.

One hundred thirty-three (29.2%) participants responded. Most lived in an urban region and worked predominantly in direct patient care. More respondents reported engaging in informal CE than in formal CE. Hands-on or practical workshops were the preferred CE format. Common barriers to CE included professional commitments and cost and time of travel; facilitators included interest in the topic and increasing knowledge and competency. AMPTs with less physical therapy experience found cost to be a greater barrier and were more interested in mentorship programs and CE as a means to obtain credentials.

AMPTs' preferred CE formats are inconsistent with the CE opportunities in which they participate. CE initiatives for AMPTs should include hands-on training and should account for time and cost to make CE opportunities more readily available to them.