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As a physiotherapist in private practice, I am acutely aware that access to clinically applicable knowledge is not easy in the private practice setting. This is in complete contrast to when we study in our training years and we had university libraries and other resources available to us.
How we use this knowledge differs dramatically too. Back in our student days the library was a source of articles we could access about a topic to complete yet another assignment. Today we need to help us improve our knowledge and thereby improving our treatments and patient outcomes.
When you are not part of a large institution, academic institute or living in a university town, continuing professional education can be difficult. Subscribing to multiple journals is unrealistic for most individuals. When considering which journal, one must also consider its content. It may be nice to know that the contractile part of a muscle is no longer just considered made up of actin and myosin, but also titin, but how does this help our day-to-day practice?
Sports Physiotherapy New Zealand can help!
Sports Physiotherapy New Zealand (SPNZ) has a key role as that of a provider of information to improve clinical practice of its members. This complements the role of some physiotherapy schools and universities, which can be in general, more focused on a research outcome at postgraduate and higher levels.
In choosing partners to work with SPNZ looks to those who reflect our goals of proving take-home clinical information. One such current partner is BJSM. Though not all of its articles are clinically focused, there are always a good number of them in each issue that can provide the clinician ideas on ways of improving their practice. In this issue, the two editors' choice papers provide good examples. One is on shoulder impingement ( see page 436 ), when treatment is focused on the scapula, and the other considers load management in rugby as a way of looking at injury prevention ( see page 421 ).
Learn from international sports physio leader–Dr Phil Glasgow
On 14 and 15 October 2017, SPNZ continues its role of providing clinical information to our members and other interested parties, with our fourth SPNZ Sports Physiotherapy Symposium (figure). I am delighted to report that a master clinician–scientist, Dr Phil Glasgow (Masters in Physiotherapy and PhD) from the Sports Institute, Northern Ireland will be our keynote speaker. He is in demand all over the world for his ability to link evidence with practical solutions to use in the clinic. The proof of the pudding is that he recently served at his third Olympic Games. He was the chief physiotherapist for the massively successful Great Britain team. He will give all our members insight into sports physio at that level and share the lessons that apply in the clinic. You can get a taste for his clinical acumen in this BJSM podcast http://ow.ly/uiMS308fBHL.
The SPNZ symposiums are a gathering of top sports medicine clinicians who come together to share clinically relevant research and practice, and comradery, in a physiotherapy setting. And there is always a take-home message that can be used in the clinic tomorrow.
With these education programmes and courses, symposiums and partners such as BJSM, providing up-to-date clinically relevant research and practice concepts, New Zealand sports physiotherapists will continue to be at the forefront of our profession locally and on the world stage.
Remember the very easy way to keep in touch with SPNZ activity is via our Twitter feed (@SportsPhysioNZ) and our SportsPhysioNZ Facebook page. I look forward to seeing you at our symposium in October.
Footnotes
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.