Action research in the development of a physiotherapy curriculum - a means to an end

Abstract

Physiotherapy was introduced to the Mediterranean island state of Malta following the poliomyelitis epidemic of 1943. For the next 30 years, the service was staffed by expatriate British physiotherapists and Maltese physiotherapists trained in the UK In 1976, a training course was begun on the island using the curriculum of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (C.S.P.), the physiotherapists' professional body in the UK The course tutor was a British expatriate and a member of the C.S.P. Despite far-reaching changes in education of physiotherapists in the UK in the last quarter of the 20th century, the Maltese curriculum could be said to be stuck in a time warp, more suited to health needs in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s than to health needs in Malta following the new millennium. In 1992, the physiotherapy course was incorporated into the Institute of Health Care (IHC) of the University of Malta (UoM) and the qualification was upgraded from a diploma to a degree.