Membership

2008 Application Form for Associate Membership
2008 Renewal Form for Associate Members
2008 Renewal Form for Advanced Practitioners

Membership Pathways - Information for Associate Members wishing to apply for College Membership (MNZCP)

• The College offers resources to assist members to demonstrate their ongoing professional competence.
• College members are able to demonstrate to patients, employers, funders and other health professionals that they are committed to improving their professional skills through active, balanced and high quality continuing education.
• At every level, members must meet continuing education requirements to maintain their membership status.
• Associate members of the College who wish to apply for Membership can choose between a general option or an advanced practitioner option. Membership routes include completion of either a postgraduate qualification, or College Accredited Membership courses. These awards formalise achievements and give professional recognition to those reaching an advanced level in their profession.
• College members have access to a range of College services including participation in a professionally developed peer review process, Guidelines for the development of your professional development plan, professional development portfolio and professional development report. The College has an electronic logbook available for members use to assist meeting the re-certification requirements of HPCA Act (2003). A points system is administered by the Academic Board of the College.
• College members have preferential rights to attend educational events organised by the College, including discounts.
  

Information for College Members

Vision
The NZ College of Physiotherapy Inc. is recognised by key stakeholders as the preferred pathway for demonstrating continuing physiotherapy competency.

Mission
The NZ College of Physiotherapy will provide leadership in the promotion of competence and recognition of the highest standards of professional practice in all fields of physiotherapy.

The College will do this by supporting and guiding all College members to develop skills and strategies for their individual professional development, providing them with a structure to maintain and demonstrate ongoing competence while promoting the value of maintaining ongoing professional competence as a physiotherapy practitioner.

Goals

• To promote the value of maintaining ongoing professional competence as a Physiotherapy  practitioner*
• To support and guide College members to develop skills and strategies to maintain and demonstrate ongoing competence
• To provide a governance structure to ensure ongoing viability of the College for the physiotherapy profession and facilitate visibility of the College to all stakeholders
• To develop an infrastructure to support college members to demonstrate achievement of professional excellence

 College Activities

• Measure and recognise members’ continuing and postgraduate education through a regularly reviewed points system
• Recognise members’ participation in peer review completed to College standards
• Provide accredited routes to Membership (MNZCP) and Fellowship (FNZCP)
• Provide a formalised option for the recognition of advanced practitioners and a formalised route to clinical specialisation through Fellowship.
• Accredite high quality physiotherapy courses, workshops, conferences, in-service educational programs and NZSP branch educational programmed
• Produce educational resources
• Encourage and support physiotherapy research
• Co-ordinate education about non-clinical topics
• Organise lecture tours, conferences and other educational events
• Assist members to plan their ongoing educational programmes
• Build links with educational organisations in New Zealand and overseas

 Benefits of belonging to the College

• Provides evidence of attendance at quality continuing education events
• College members are able to demonstrate to patients, employers, funders and others that they are committed to improving their professional skills through active, quality continuing education
• College members have access to a range of College services and resources, including copyrighted peer review and professional portfolio guidelines documents
• The maintenance of your College log book will facilitate Physiotherapists to meet the CPD requirements of the registering authority under the HPCA Act (2003)

Structure
The College is an autonomous Incorporated Society accountable to its members, who have the chance to contribute formally to College policy at the Annual General Meeting. The College is governed by an Executive Council, made up of a nominee from each of the clinical Special Interest Groups plus the NZSP President or nominee, and the Council chairperson.  Council members are entitled to serve a total of two, two year terms. An Academic Advisory Board makes recommendations about academic and educational matters to the Council.

Executive Council
Janice Mueller (Chairperson)
Representatives from the following Special Interest Groups; PAANZ, NZMPA, Cardiothoracics, Neurology, Older Adults, Hand Therapy, Occupational Health, Paediatrics, Continence & Women’s Health, Sports & Orthopaedics and the NZSP President or nominee.

Academic Advisory Board
Dr Gill Johnson (Chairperson)
Dr Haxby Abbott
Dr Mark Laslett
Dr Anna Mackey
Gisela Sole
Steve White
Lynne Taylor (ex officio)
Janice Mueller (College Chair and non-voting Executive Council liaison role)

Subscriptions
The College accepts only NZSP members and with the support of NZSP is able to keep annual subscriptions affordable. The College organises regular educational activities which College members receive at a discounted price and provides high quality physiotherapy education, with the profits assisting the College to meet its operating costs. 

Categories of College membership:
There are four categories of College membership - Associate member, Member, Fellow and Honorary Life Member. All members must enter the College at Associate level.

The conditions for joining the College are membership of the NZSP, payment of a fee and a commitment to meet the College’s maintenance requirements (see below).

Continuing Education Points:
Continuing education is measured, for College purposes, through a points system designed to cater for the needs of all sectors of the profession such as clinicians, managers, educators and researchers. The points system is regularly reviewed and was last updated in January 2005 to align with the physiotherapy Registering Authority requirements regarding Continuing Professional Development. This will assist all registered physiotherapists to meet the competency requirements of the HPCA Act (2003).

College members receive an electronic points card to guide them in the allocation of points and an electronic log book to be used to record their continuing education points, both available on the College website pages. Alternative forms of record keeping are acceptable provided the allocation of points as per the College guidelines is always referred to.

Associate members’ maintenance requirements:
There are three aspects to maintaining College Associate membership – payment of the annual subscription, regular submission of a log and evidence that peer review has occurred in line with College guidelines.

Logbook
Currently the points requirement for all members is 50 points in a three year period from a range of categories as listed on the points card. This three year period starts at the beginning of the year in which the Associate member joins the College.

Peer Review
Peer review must be completed to College standards and all members receive a copy of the copyrighted College guidelines to assist in this. The peer review is confidential to the reviewer and the person being reviewed – the College receives only a form verifying that it has occurred.

All members receive notification reminding them of when their logs and peer review forms are due.

Members’ maintenance requirements
Members (MNZCP) also need to pay an annual subscription, return a log book and evidence of peer review every three years. Additionally, Members need to meet an extra requirement about ongoing levels of physiotherapy involvement. They receive forms to assist with this. Any College member who anticipates difficulty in meeting the maintenance requirements is encouraged to contact the Executive Officer to discuss this in confidence.

Fellowship maintenance requirements
Fellows (FNZCP) also need to pay an annual subscription, return a log book and evidence of peer review every three years.  Additionally, they are required to continue with continuing education activities as b\determined by the Council in order to retain Fellowship status.

How to move from Associate membership to Membership
Associate members wishing to become Members of the College (MNZCP) must come through one of the following routes:

Route A: Postgraduate qualification relevant to physiotherapy or physiotherapy management from a recognised tertiary institution.
Route B: College Accredited Membership Course and an oral presentation to an acceptable standard at an approved conference
Route C: Portfolio of designated courses, case studies, literature reviews and an oral presentation.

In addition, applicants need to accrue 75 points in the twelve month period preceding the application, provide verification of working for at least five years full time equivalent in physiotherapy and pay an application fee.

The general option is designed for those maintaining a general practice, those in management and/or those who teach. These Members use the post nominal MNZCP without any bracketed clinical designation.

The advanced practice option is designed to recognise those Members who, whilst not yet specialists, can prove that they are at an advanced stage in their designated area of clinical practice. These Members may “tag” their post nominal letters e.g. MNZCP (Paediatrics). Complete guidelines for College Membership are available from the College office.

Fellowship
Members (MNZCP) may apply to become Fellows of the College (FNZCP) through one of three routes. There is an academic route, a research route and a route to clinical specialisation. The College anticipates that some Members who have advanced practice status will continue through the clinical specialist route to Fellowship. A Fellowship Handbook is available.

Course, Conference and Workshop Accreditation:
Organisers may apply to the College to have their educational events accredited by the College. Accreditation assures participants, sponsors and employers of high quality continuing education, and attendance at an accredited course earns extra points for College members.
For further information about accreditation please contact the College office.

For further assistance or information please contact:
Judy Russell, Executive Officer
NZ College of Physiotherapy
P O Box 27 386 Wellington
Telephone 04 801 6500   Fax 04 801 5571
e-mail:college@physiotherapy.org.nz
www.physiotherapy.org.nz