Memorial University (MUN) in St. John’s is researching the development of a physiotherapy (PT) program and an occupational therapy (OT) program.
These areas of study, which admit only small numbers each year, are becoming more popular in Canada, according to Heather Carnahan, dean and professor at the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation.
Carnahan said one of the reasons physiotherapy is becoming more popular is because people are realizing that therapy can prevent the need for hospital care.
According to Carnahan, despite their popularity, physiotherapy programs tend to only accept small class numbers.
“Class sizes are generally based on the amount of funding allocated to support the program, and to the anticipated need for graduating therapists,” Carnahan said.
Halifax’s Dalhousie University physiotherapy program admits 56 students each year, with 43 of these spaces reserved for students from Atlantic Canada, according to the program’s website.
So far the student reaction to the bringing these programs to Memorial has been good, Carnahan said, but faculty “have concerns regarding the implementation.”
Bringing a physiotherapy program to MUN would allow for a second physiotherapy school to operate in Atlantic Canada and allow more students to attend graduate school in Canada rather than seek schooling abroad, she said.
Carnahan said she believes Memorial could have been prompted to add such a program to its university docket by a report prepared for the Dean of Medicine at MUN in 2012 which highlighted the need for occupational therapists and physiotherapists in the province, particularly in some rural areas.
“Data shows that these regions are particularly underserviced. The rationale is that if OT and PT graduate students are trained in rural areas in Newfoundland and Labrador, they have a higher chance of staying in these regions to practice,” she said.
Carnahan said a good therapy program would include inter-professional training, a focus on rural health, and a research or evidence-based curriculum.
She said she is waiting for all the necessary consultations to finish before she makes any personal recommendations about implementing these programs at MUN.
