Continuing Education Rules Workshop

The Board of Physical Therapy convened in February 2021, to continue work on developing draft rule language for continuing education (CE) requirements. The board reviewed comments regarding the proposed draft rule language from the December 2020 meeting. Attendees commenting at the meeting included licensees representing clinic, school, research, and academic-based settings, as well as leadership from American Physical Therapy Association Washington.

Guiding the discussion were key concepts regarding the field of physical therapy:

• The effect of COVID-19 on face-to-face interactions has necessitated a review of historical delivery methods for continuing education.
• Specialized training to work in select settings (i.e. public schools) may be required of physical therapists and is central to the ability to practice in that setting.
• The role of a physical therapist (PT) and physical therapist assistant (PTA) is larger than simply performing clinical duties. PTs and PTAs play a pivotal role in the advancement of the scientific understanding of disease states. This is vital to the development of the profession and protection of the public.
• Board-certification status is recognized as the gold-standard of advanced clinical proficiency.

Draft rule language was amended to reflect these key concepts in the following ways:

• Expansion of accepted delivery methods for CE courses to include online, asynchronous formats (such as recorded lectures), provided that courses are pertinent to the field of physical therapy and that learning objectives are clearly defined.
  • For courses pertinent to the field of physical therapy that lack clearly defined objectives, documentation requirements are reduced to require two key takeaway points for each hour of running time, rather than a one-page synopsis for each hour of running time.
• Increase the number of hours allowed for CE credit in the following circumstances: attendance at scientific conferences, preparation of material for CE courses, preparation for and passing of board-certification examination.
• Acceptance of preparation time with respect to original scholarly research (to include poster presentations) or article publication.

The board will continue with the next steps of the rulemaking process through the rest of 2021. The rules will not be final until adopted formally by the board.

The Board of Physical Therapy wishes to thank members of the public for their engagement and insightful commentary in this rules workshop process.