Baskwill Amanda, Sumpton Bryn, Shipwright Stacey, Atack Lynda, Maher Janet
Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness, Humber College, Etobicoke, ON, Canada.
College of Massage Therapists of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Int J Ther Massage Bodywork. 2020 Dec 1;13(4):12-24. eCollection 2020 Dec.
Massage therapists have been a part of Canadian's health care since 1919. The profession has gone through great change over the past 100 years including adjustments to entry-to-practice education. An important recent change was the implementation of massage therapy (MT) education program accreditation. In light of the likely disruption as a result of programs becoming accredited, a scan of the current state of MT education in Canada was undertaken.
An environmental scan informed by seminal medical education efforts was used to describe the thoughts and opinions of MT education stakeholders in Canada. Specifically, stakeholders were interviewed regarding the current state of MT education and their comments were analyzed for common themes.
Twenty-one stakeholders participated. Four themes were constructed: variation, isolation, stagnation, and accreditation. Variation is described as the impact of differences in content and quality of the education provided in MT colleges. Isolation is described as the feeling of the participant being separated, or disconnected, from the regulator, accreditor, or colleagues due, at least in part, to a lack of communication or networking opportunities. Stagnation is described as a lack of activity, growth, or development within MT education. Participants talked about accreditation, both as a solution for some of the challenges previously mentioned, and as a potential challenge in itself.
Several challenges to MT education were described by stakeholders that they hoped would be remedied by national MT program accreditation. Despite some limitations, this environmental scan forms a baseline for stakeholder views on massage education in Canada upon which future comparisons can be made. While the environmental scan results are most useful when applied to the MT in Canada context, stakeholders in other countries may also find them interesting and valuable when considering challenges facing their own education programs.
自1919年以来，按摩治疗师一直是加拿大医疗保健体系的一部分。在过去的100年里，这一职业经历了巨大的变革，包括对执业前教育的调整。最近一项重要的变革是实施了按摩治疗（MT）教育项目认证。鉴于项目获得认证可能带来的干扰，对加拿大MT教育的现状进行了一次审视。
采用一种受开创性医学教育成果启发的环境审视方法，来描述加拿大MT教育利益相关者的想法和观点。具体而言，就MT教育的现状对利益相关者进行了访谈，并对他们的评论进行了分析，以找出共同主题。
21名利益相关者参与了此次访谈。构建了四个主题：差异、孤立、停滞和认证。差异被描述为MT学院所提供教育在内容和质量上的差异所产生的影响。孤立被描述为参与者感到与监管机构、认证机构或同事相分离或脱节，至少部分原因是缺乏沟通或建立联系的机会。停滞被描述为MT教育内部缺乏活动、增长或发展。参与者谈到了认证，它既是解决上述一些挑战的办法，其本身也是一个潜在的挑战。
利益相关者描述了MT教育面临的几个挑战，他们希望通过全国性的MT项目认证来加以解决。尽管存在一些局限性，但这种环境审视形成了加拿大利益相关者对按摩教育看法的基线，可供未来进行比较。虽然环境审视结果在应用于加拿大的MT时最为有用，但其他国家的利益相关者在考虑其自身教育项目所面临的挑战时，可能也会觉得这些结果有趣且有价值。
