The Chairman of the European Region of the WCPT, Antonio Lopes, welcomed all the delegates from the Member Organisations to the Post Congress Seminar related to the 2nd European Congress on Physiotherapy Education. A total of 28 delegates from 20 Members Organisations were present.

Grahame Pope, member of the Education WG, presented to the meeting the aim of the seminar as follows: To analyse the 2nd European Congress on Physiotherapy Education, hold on 25 – 26 September 2008, in Stockholm, Sweden, and discuss the implications for further work to be developed by the Working Groups of the European Region of the WCPT.

According to it the seminar was divided in three main parts:

Discussion in groups of the following items. (Strengths of the 2nd Education Congress, Points to be improved or added in future Congress and Possible themes for the 3rd Education Congress on Physiotherapy Education)
Presentation of the reports from the discussion groups.
Possible Implications for further work to be developed by the ER-WCPT’s WGs

1. Discussion in groups
After the presentation of the seminar structure, the delegates were distributed into three discussion groups.

The discussion groups were chaired / moderated by:

Group 1 – Moderators: Sonia Souto and Roland Craps
Group 2 – Moderators: Nina Holten and Charlotte Hager-Ross
Group 3 – Moderators: Grahame Pope and Philip van der Wees

2. Presentation of the reports from the discussion groups

Strengths of the 2nd Education Congress

Collaboration a key word: Active participants, good atmosphere.
Organisation. The congress was very well organised, everything ran in time, good time schedule, managers of the room did a very good job, helpful to the presenters, well prepared in the rooms. Poster and platform presenters were well informed by written clear and short instructions.
Wide range of possibilities to attend different presentations. The set up of the parallel sessions.
Posters presentations. Good to have the poster presentations without any parallel platform presentations, short 3 minutes oral presentations of the posters and maximized to 5 - 6 posters.
The venue and location of the congress. The Congress center in the city center and the proximity between congress rooms.
The quality of the keynote speakers.
The marketing of the Congress.
The technique with hardware, software and technical support. The web page.
Social events. The walk to the venues of the social events allowed informal discussion.
Accessibility for clinical colleagues.
The link between profession and education.

Points to be improved or added in future Congress
Poster presenters could be encouraged to bring hand outs of the posters. Perhaps poster oral presentations could be repeated a second time in order for more people to listen, but it needs to be remembered that it takes away time for feedback to the presenters while interacting with individuals. Place the posters in a bigger place.
Key note speakers could be shorter, perhaps 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes. More interaction in the symposia, perhaps more workshops but the more types of presentations one allow, it demands more specified instructions and possibilities for submission of type of abstract etc.
Facilitate more discussion and reflection. E.g.: coffee model discussion in the symposium. Discuss from table to table.
Students should be more involved as was at the 1st Education Congress: as volunteers and setting up a special programme for them of possible.
To involve more clinicians in the congress (Making the congress more practical / Involving specialisation / Clinical education).
Exhibition space and sponsorship should be allowed if possible.
To do a special invitation for eastern countries. To contribute and participate. To explore how to include topics related to their special needs.
To have keynote speakers from different backgrounds and countries in order to have more dialogue. To do a balance. As an example: Not only keynote speakers from the UK or Nordic countries.
To have the gala dinner during the congress and not after.

Possible themes for the 3rd Education Congress on Physiotherapy Education.
The themes need to be considered according to the goals of the congress. We discussed how the present themes emerged through the work of the ER-WCPT Educational Working Group and then influenced and specified by the Scientific committee.
How to approach to the differences in education in each of the countries
Achievements of the Bologna process.
The design of master programmes for specialisation and research in the field of education.
Evidence in progress.
Leadership.
Collaboration for quality assessment.
Changes in the health systems.
Validation of informal and non formal learning.

3. Possible Implications for further work to be developed by the ER-WCPT’s WGs


How could these conclusions influence the future activities of the working groups, as decided by the General Meeting (Cyprus 2004)

The following recommendations were presented:

Education WG – To explore the possibility of a European Master programme – education

Professional Issues WG – To explore further the EBP and the registration and re-registration. Further work on health promotion

EU WG – To continue working on issues of migration related to physiotherapy Education.

After the presentations from the discussion groups and the plenary session, Antonio Lopes, Chairman of the European Region of the WCPT and the Chairman of the Education Working Group thanked the delegates for their contributions and recommendations and closed the seminar.