Continuing Education of Physiotherapists Involved in Treating Persons with Work-Related Back Pain

Abstract

Purpose: Physiotherapists often use continuing education (CE) courses to acquire new knowledge, but little is known about the types and combinations of CE courses attended. The objective of this study was to describe the CE “profiles” of physiotherapists who treat individuals with work-related back pain. Methods: Physiotherapists answered a self-administered questionnaire about the CE courses attended after initial training. They also provided demographic information, including years of practice, university of graduation, and distance of workplace from urban centres. Multiple correspondence analysis with hierarchical classification was used to identify CE profiles, that is, combinations of courses most frequently attended by physiotherapists in this group. Results: Responses were received from 332 physiotherapists (response rate of 81.4%) working in 199 randomly selected clinics in Quebec. A very high proportion (88.9%) reported having attended at least one CE course related to back pain treatment. The most common area of CE was mobilization (53.9% of therapists). Others included osteopathy (21.7%), varied CE (15.9%), and neural mobilization/muscle reeducation (8.5%). Years of practice and university of graduation were significantly related (p < .05) to CE profiles, whereas distance from urban centres was not. Conclusions: The variations in CE profiles among physiotherapists treating the same type of clientele raise questions regarding the potential for important differences in the knowledge base used to treat workers with back pain. More effective CE strategies are needed to promote evidencebased knowledge among physiotherapists involved in back pain treatment for injured workers.