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S. Waller1, A. Al Shamlan2, N. Saleh2
1Monash University, Department of Rural Health, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2Emirates Physiotherapy Society, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Background: The UAE has a developing but well-resourced health system; rapidly evolving to mirror and challenge the best practices of the developed world; influenced by the multiple communities represented in the country and in the profession. Physiotherapy in the UAE is a workforce where there are greater numbers of expatriate physiotherapists from all over the world but a growing number of locally trained physiotherapists. The profession has developed with complex internal and external drivers in a small country which is a major trading and tourist destination, a modern iteration of the ancient place of the Arab world in the history of development in science and health. Development of the profession of physiotherapy has yet to be recorded and an archive to be established in a three-phase project.
Purpose: To record and analyse the influences and forces that have contributed to the development of the profession of Physiotherapy in the UAE.
To establish an archive which will be a sustainable repository of the history which can inform the future strategy for further development.
The initial stage of the project includes engagement, research design development and initial document and pilot interview analysis.
To establish an archive which will be a sustainable repository of the history which can inform the future strategy for further development.
The initial stage of the project includes engagement, research design development and initial document and pilot interview analysis.
Methods: A qualitative approach to developing a historical record will be initiated with community engagement and co-design. Ethics application and development of the research protocol which will inform the further stages of the project. Initial phase will include document discovery and analysis of initial interviews with five experienced physiotherapists. Document and transcript framework analysis will reference elements of education, research, advocacy, governance and scope of practice.
Results: Documentation has been sought from the professional body, the health service and from 3 university programs. Together with analysis of 5 in depth interviews, a timeline for development has been constructed and initial schematic for the definitive archive has been developed including information about the development of physiotherapy education, research, advocacy, governance and practice in the United Arab Emirates. Phase one of the three-part project will be presented.
Conclusion(s): Physiotherapists are supported in their professional development and identity by understanding and connecting with the genealogy of their profession and the context in which it is practiced. Unless this history is captured, recorded and archived, it may be lost especially in the UAE where no previous mechanism has been established to achieve this.
Implications: An archive of the development of the profession of Physiotherapy in the UAE will offer significant support for workforce policy development and for the evolution of all dimensions of the discipline.
Funding, acknowledgements: N/A
Keywords: Physiotherapy, United Arab Emirates, History
Topic: Professional issues
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention
Committee: Ministry of Health and Prevention Research Ethics Committee
Ethics number: MOHAP/DXB-REC/JJJ /No.92 /2020
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
