January is a time for taking stock: Where have we been and where are we going? As the year begins, people are talking about Time Magazine’s person of the year, their Spotify wrapped, the top news stories, songs and films of the past year… With that in mind, it is a good time to review the last year at the College of Physiotherapists of Alberta and look ahead to what’s coming our way in 2025.
Looking back at 2024, two major themes emerge. One is the ongoing work to address sexual abuse and sexual misconduct in physiotherapy practice. The other is the work to implement the 2025 Standards of Practice.
Concerning Trends Related to Sexual Abuse and Sexual Misconduct
When it comes to sexual abuse and sexual misconduct, the College first brought the alarming trends in professional conduct to physiotherapists’ attention back in September 2023. Since then, we have identified and worked to raise awareness of the underlying themes that relate to the complaints the College has received. These themes include:
- Awareness of and adherence to professional requirements
- Consent
- Communication
- Sensitive practice and culture or intercultural practice
Regarding awareness and adherence to legislation, the College has noted that some of the complaints received have related to specific requirements established in the Standards and legislation, such as the definition that a person is a patient for 365 days from the last date of physiotherapy service.
Consent arose as a theme due to instances where the physiotherapist failed to obtain informed consent for their actions and that failure led to the client’s complaint of inappropriate behaviour which the client understood to be sexual in nature.
Communication has long been a source of conduct matters, and complaints related to sexual abuse and sexual misconduct are no exception. Specific to sexual misconduct, we have seen instances where a comment from a physiotherapist led to a complaint of sexual misconduct either due to what was said, or how it was said.
Finally, the theme of sensitive or trauma-informed practice, and the effect that a person’s background, culture, and past experiences can have on what conduct is considered appropriate has been noted.
Raising Awareness, Providing Resources
Throughout 2024, the College worked to raise awareness about these themes and to provide information and resources to support change in practice.
The importance of communication was addressed with the Words Matter infographic which highlighted problematic comments that have been part of sexual abuse of sexual misconduct complaints received by the College. In early 2024, the patient-centred communication e-learning module was published as a resource to support physiotherapists’ efforts to reflect on and refine their communication skills.
The informed consent module was developed as a direct result of the professional conduct trends, and with the sexual abuse and sexual misconduct trends in mind. The content of the module intentionally addressed common knowledge gaps related to consent and was designed to support application of knowledge into practice. The Consent Guide for Alberta Physiotherapists was also developed and released in 2024 to serve as a print resource for physiotherapists.
The theme of sensitive practice or trauma-informed practice has been threaded through several resources. For example, sensitive practice is a topic that is included in the consent module and in documents like the therapeutic relations guide and the managing challenging situations guide. Trauma-informed practice was also a topic included in recent webinars. Several episodes of the CPTA’s podcast, College Conversations, have also touched on these themes.
We know that it will take time before we see measurable changes in the number of professional conduct matters related to sexual abuse and sexual misconduct. However, we are optimistic that with continued effort, we will see the positive changes we are working towards.
Coming Soon
In 2025, the College is working to address the “professional requirements” theme identified in the conduct data. This theme is fundamentally about reviewing the rules of practice. To address this theme, College has developed a new eLearning module for physiotherapists. The module highlights legislative requirements and definitions, and addresses foundational topics including therapeutic relationships, avoiding boundary erosions, and reviewing mandatory reporting requirements.
The new module will update the Patient Relations Program that the College developed in 2019 in response to requirements established by the Government of Alberta. At the time, the government required that the College develop a patient relations program which includes “measures for preventing and addressing sexual abuse of and sexual misconduct towards patients by regulated members.” The government further required that those measures include education for regulated members related to the conduct of regulated members towards patients. Since 2019, physiotherapists fulfilled the patient relations program requirements either by completing the 2019 College-selected activity (if they were registered at the time), or in subsequent years, upon registration as a new registrant of the College.
At their December 2024 meeting, Council revisited the Patient Relations Program requirements and adopted the eLearning module regarding sexual abuse and sexual misconduct as part of the patient relations program. Due to the number and nature of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct complaints received, Council decided to require all registrants complete the updated patient relations program eLearning module on an annual basis.
All physiotherapists on either the General or the Provisional Register must complete the sexual abuse and sexual misconduct eLearning module before they renew their practice permits in August or September of 2025.
Physiotherapists will receive emails from the College with further instructions about completing this module in the coming weeks and are encouraged to complete the module at their earliest convenience.
The Next Big Thing: The Standards of Practice Implementation and Jurisprudence
Throughout 2024, the College also worked to finalize and implement the updated Standards of Practice, which came into effect on January 1st, 2025. The Standards are fundamental to the regulation of physiotherapists and to physiotherapy practice in Alberta.
Several recent articles and podcasts have focused on the updates contained in the 2025 Standards of Practice and registrants have received several direct email messages notifying them of the January 1, 2025, implementation date. As 2025 unfolds, many more articles and podcasts are planned to further highlight changes to the Standards and to help physiotherapists in their efforts to apply the Standards to their individual physiotherapy practices.
The 2025 College-Selected Activity will be the jurisprudence module, based on the 2025 Standards of Practice.
In the case of the College of Physiotherapists of Alberta, jurisprudence refers to practical wisdom about the Standards of Practice, and the ability to understand and apply the Standards of Practice to a physiotherapist’s daily work.
The jurisprudence module was selected as the College-Selected Activity due to the recent update to the Standards and the critical requirement that each physiotherapist be familiar with and understand how the Standards of Practice apply to daily practice. The jurisprudence module is designed to assess a physiotherapist’s knowledge and understanding of the Standards. These will be the Standards that apply to practice for several years, so it is important to establish early on that people know and understand them.
In the coming weeks, physiotherapists will receive direct emails from the College with information about how to access and complete the jurisprudence module.
Physiotherapists will be assigned to one of four versions of the jurisprudence module and may receive different questions than their colleagues and peers. However, the College continues to encourage physiotherapists to discuss the questions with their peers and work together to determine the correct answer. We know that this process of discussion helps to enhance learning and that by working with their peers, physiotherapists will be exposed to more questions and more of the important considerations that can apply to practice.
The College encourages physiotherapists to complete the jurisprudence module as soon as possible, rather than waiting until practice permit renewal in August or September. Completing the module now means that the physiotherapist can confirm that they do in fact know what the 2025 Standards require of them. This will help identify if the physiotherapist needs to go back and review any of the Standards, for example, if they don’t do as well as they expected on the module. By getting that feedback early, we hope to avoid people working with incorrect information and any risks that can arise from doing so.
Requirements for Physiotherapists on the General Register
All physiotherapists registered with the College on the General Register must complete the jurisprudence module. This is a requirement for renewal. If you are currently on the General Register or are added to the General Register before you renew your practice permit in August/September you must complete the module before you can renew your practice permit this fall.
Expectations for Physiotherapists on the Provisional Register
Individuals on the Provisional Register are not subject to the requirement to complete the College-Selected Activity. However, they are subject to the Standards of Practice now and will be in the foreseeable future when they are added to the General Register. Knowledge of the Standards and the ability to apply them in practice is equally important for this group of registrants.
If you are currently on the Provisional Register and are not added to the General Register before you renew your practice permit in August/September, completion of the jurisprudence module is not mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged.
Renewal Requirements 2025
To summarize, physiotherapists have two things on their to-do lists in 2025.
The jurisprudence module will be available in late January. Every physiotherapist currently registered with the College will receive an email with instructions on how to access the module.
The sexual abuse and sexual misconduct eLearning module will also be available by mid to late January and will be accessed via the College’s website. Physiotherapists on both the General and Provisional Registers must complete the sexual abuse and sexual misconduct modules.
Other Notable News Items from 2024
Although sexual abuse and sexual misconduct and the implementation of the Standards have taken up much of the College’s time and resources throughout 2024, we have also been actively engaged with partner organizations from across Canada in the work of redesigning the CAPR examination process and related initiatives including the redesign of the credentialling process and development of expedited pathways for credentialling some internationally educated physiotherapists.
