PhysioUpdate 18th April 2023

New Zealand changes stance and opens up work opportunities to physios from the UK and Ireland

Physiotherapists based in the UK and Ireland whose ambitions to practise in New Zealand have been stymied in recent years have a good reason to celebrate this week.

Along with Physiotherapy New Zealand (PNZ) – which plays a similar role to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) in the UK – they will welcome an announcement that physiotherapists have been placed on the country’s immigration Green List.

Describing the announcement as a ‘long-awaited revision’ of the legislation that would improve New Zealanders’ access to ‘critical healthcare’, PNZ said the change would make it easier for employers to hire and attract overseas professionals.

---

Research looks at effects of MSK physios having 'healthy conversations' with their patients

Physiotherapy patients living with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions and pain need more opportunities to join support groups that will ‘promote long-term self-management’.

That is one of the key recommendations contained in an open access paper that was published last month in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. The paper’s first author is Amelia Parchment, a research associate based at the University of Bath’s department for health who conducted the research as part of a PhD.

It notes: 'Making support groups more accessible following physiotherapy treatment may be a cost-effective, valuable way of enhancing self-management, reducing health-service use and providing emotional and social benefits to those with chronic MSK conditions and pain.'

After liaising with physiotherapists in Wessex who had received training in gaining ‘healthy conversation skills’ (HCS) – part of the national Making Every Contact Count (MECC) initiative – Dr Parchment conducted semi-structured interviews with eight patients who had long-term MSK conditions.

 

---