The World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) is a confederation of national physical therapy associations. It was founded in 1951 and in 2007 has 101 Member Organisations organised in five geographic regions: Africa; Asia Western Pacific; Europe; North America Caribbean; South America. Through its Member Organisations WCPT represents over 270,000 physical therapists worldwide.
WCPT intends that these international guidelines for physical therapist professional entry-level education are used worldwide. They may be used for curriculum planning, curriculum development, and in internal and external quality assurance processes and standards assessment.
While the guidelines have been developed with input from and specific reference to the Member Organisations of WCPT, the intent is that they may be used by countries where physical therapy associations and education programmes do not currently exist and where the profession is not represented in WCPT.
Background
At the 15th General Meeting of WCPT (2003), the following motion was passed:
That WCPT develop international guidelines for physical therapist professional education (entry level) that can be utilised worldwide. The process shall include:
- Determining practice expectations of the graduate of professional physical therapist education programmes
- Developing curricular content guidelines for professional physical therapist education.
It is acknowledged that the development of the profession varies worldwide and that for some countries, with a well-established, recognised and regulated profession, mechanisms already exist to provide quality assurance in physical therapy entry-level educational provision. However, this is not universal and must be born in mind when reviewing the document. It is anticipated that different countries will use these curriculum guidelines to varying extents dependent on their needs. While some aspects of these guidelines may already be implemented, other aspects may include elements to which countries may strive to fulfil. It is the view of WCPT that all countries should be striving towards fulfilling the curriculum described in these guidelines.
These guidelines are informed by WCPT’s existing policy documents, such as the Description of Physical Therapy, Declarations of Principles, Position Statements, and Endorsements. These Endorsements also serve to place the curriculum guidelines in the context of international policy.
Target Audience
These guidelines may be used by:
- physical therapy educators,
- health and education authorities,
- monitoring and regulatory bodies,
- national physical therapy organisations,
- WCPT Member Organisations,
- potential WCPT Member Organisations,
- government policy makers; and
- others, who have an interest in providing physical therapist professional entry-level education programmes.
Application
The guidelines may be used for a variety of purposes. They provide a means of describing the nature and characteristics of physical therapist professional entry-level educational programmes. They represent general expectations about standards for the award of qualifications at an entry level and articulate attributes and capabilities that those possessing such qualifications should be able to demonstrate. They are an important external source of reference for designing and developing new physical therapist professional entry-level educational programmes. They provide general guidance for articulating the learning outcomes associated with the programme.
Guidelines provide for variety and flexibility in the design of programmes and encourage innovation within an agreed overall conceptual framework. The guidelines also provide a framework for internal quality assurance processes. They enable the learning outcomes specified for a particular programme to be reviewed and evaluated against agreed general expectations about standards.
The guidelines may also inform physical therapists, managers, service providers, and others delivering health services as it details the level of attributes and skills of physical therapists on entry into the profession.
These guidelines are but one of a number of sources of information that may be drawn upon for the purposes of academic review and for making judgments about threshold standards being met (refer to the bibliography provided at appendix D).
It is acknowledged that individual programmes/countries may modify these guidelines and interpret them within the context of their situation, whilst aiming to fulfil the learning outcomes these guidelines are designed to facilitate.
- Physical Therapy and Physiotherapy: The professional title and term used to describe the profession’s practise vary and depend largely on the historical roots of the profession in the country of the WCPT Member Organisation. The most generally used titles and terms are ‘physical therapist’ or ‘physiotherapist’ and ‘physical therapy’ and ‘physiotherapy’. Physical therapist and physical therapy are used in this document but may be replaced by WCPT Member Organisations in favour of those terms officially used by them and their members without any change in the meaning of the document.
