As many of you know, the Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute is currently developing a Pelvic Therapy Practitioner Certification process (PTPC). As part of the multi-step process involved in the development of a robust certification, the job task analysis survey was completed by more than four hundred providers (403 to be exact.) The Institute was thrilled that so many current, past, or future course participants believe in this process so strongly that even a seemingly endless survey could not deter you from completing the tedious, yet crucial questions that were posed. In another step of the process that occurred after the results of the survey were tallied, I was able to view the tables of responses and I found the information very interesting- I thought that you might also be interested to know a bit more about the answers that we received in the survey.

Keeping in mind that the pelvic rehabilitation specialty is one that is not as well-represented in the clinic as orthopedics, for example, and yet is a specialty that is gaining in popularity, it was interesting to note that nearly 1 in 5 therapists completing the survey had less than one year of experience working in pelvic rehabilitation. Approximately 82% of the more than 400 people completing the questions has been working within pelvic rehabilitation for 10 years or less. In terms of the education of the people represented, the highest degree earned at the time of the survey was a doctorate for 41.4% of people, with 8.4% of those represented by transitional doctorate degrees, and less than 1% by an academic doctorate.

Several people indicated that they had board certifications in either cardiovascular and pulmonary (2), geriatrics (2), neurology (1), pediatrics (1), sports (3), and orthopedics (23), or women's health (17). Other qualifications listed by those completing the survey included LANA certification for lymphedema therapy, manual therapy certifications, yoga, Pilates, and biofeedback certifications, to name a few that appeared frequently.

PF1 Boston is almost SOLD OUT! Register today to save your spot.

This course is taught by Institute founders Holly Herman, PT, DPT, MS, OCS, WCS,BCB-PMD and Kathe Wallace, PT, BCB-PMD. Pelvic Floor Function, Dysfunction and Treatment 1 is a prerequisite to many of our other courses and is offered two more times in 2012.

If you can't make it to PF1 Boston, try checking out the following courses:

Last weekend Herman and Wallace faculty met in Florida to work on the Pelvic Therapy Practitioner Certification  (PTPC) development. The team was led fearlessly by Patricia Young of Kryterion, who assists the Institute in creating a test of the highest quality. Working within the framework of the patient/client management model that appears in the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice (APTA), faculty worked on exhaustive lists of concepts with which a pelvic rehab therapist must be competent. The work completed this past weekend allows Kryterion to create the practice analysis that will be foundational for all other elements of the test development.

The intent of the PTPC is to recognize expertise in treatment of pelvic floor and pelvic girdle dysfunction. Some of the topics that will be included on the certification exam will be pelvic anatomy, pathophysiology, medical and rehabilitative interventions, outcomes measurement, and ethics. If you currently receive the Herman & Wallace newsletter, you will be notified when Certification information is updated. If you are not currently receiving newsletters, click here if you wish to sign up. 

The Institute is sponsoring a radio show hosted by Dr. Melanie Barton and featuing Amy Stein, MPT, BCB-PMD. Amy will talk about Interstitial Cystitis and Pelvic Pain and the role of physical therapy in treating these problems

Tune in on April 28th or visit Dr. Melanie's site to download the podcast.

Recently, the Institute was made aware of an internet scam that is targeting physical therapists, including members of our teaching faculty. A bogus website called ComplaintsBoard has listed many PTs, including several respected Herman & Wallace faculty members, on a list of convicted sexual abusers. This site contains a similar list of doctors and lawyers that it claims have criminal records, meaning that patients or clients seeking professionals may find false and damning histories on internet search engines. The site then invites those whose names are posted to pay money through a different website to clear their records.

Clearly, this is the work of scam artists that are tarnishing the reputations of physical therapists. It is unclear who these perpetrators are, but they have targeted a number of respected professionals, including members of our faculty. Herman & Wallace is dismayed to see the character of professionals with whom we work and respect being attacked for profit. The APTA has been made aware of this, and is seeking legal action. If you find your name on such a list, please contact the APTA.

The Institute would like to make our community aware of this problem and to show our support of our faculty and our colleagues.

Please understand that, because we do not want to increase the web traffic to these scam sites, thereby increasing their efficacy, we will not be posting direct links to these sites.

Greetings!

This week, we finally launched our new website hermanwallace.com! Please take a look around and let us know what you think. We consider it a big improvement over the old sites (pelvicrehab.com and progressivetherapeutics.com) and we expect a much better user experience for those practitioners interesting in taking our courses.