The Search for Justice: A Physiotherapy Journey Exploring the Value of Curiosity, Conversation and Community

Jasdeep Dhir, Sarah Wojkowski
Purpose:

There is limited direction on how to interpret, apply and ultimately navigate, promote and dismantle systems and policies to achieve integration of health justice in physiotherapy education and practice.  In addition to the overwhelming evidence which supports the need for evolution in health profession education and practice, accrediting agencies that oversee health profession education are implementing standards that require health education programs to demonstrate commitments to relational accountability and justice. These policies encourage all physiotherapy programs to implement justice-driven practices and to provide evidence of where, and how, these concepts and topic areas are being integrated.

Methods:

Consensus Development Conference: A facilitated three-hour virtual consensus development conference was held and included three rounds of discussion and voting.

Scoping Reviews- Each scoping review followed the JBI methodology. Searches were developed to align with research questions. Data from the included studies from each review were collated into themes which are presented in tables and figures and described in a narrative summaries within each review.

Results:

This unique presentation will offer results from a variety of project with a common goal to better understand concepts related to health justice and associated integration into health professions education.

Conclusion(s):

The results of these connected projects can inform curricular content development, curricular reviews and revisions by physiotherapy educators and advocators. The findings can be of use to researchers, leaders, regulators and other health professions as initiatives and research in health equity progresses. We recommend that future research build on the findings to formalize the inclusion of concepts in physiotherapy competency profiles and evaluate the i the effectiveness of curricular integration.

Implications:

A collaborative understanding of health justice developed through extensive national consultation with a delegates from key physiotherapy organizations, offers valuable insight to members of the physiotherapy profession. Furthermore, capturing how concepts related to health justice are being integrated into health professions education offers an integral lens globally and outline critical concepts to address in education, research and practice.

Funding acknowledgements:
McMaster Education Research, Innovation and Theory Program Physician Services, Incorporated Canadian Physiotherapy Association (In-kind) Canadian Council of Physiotherapy Programs
Keywords:
justice
health equity
education
Primary topic:
Education: methods of teaching and learning
Second topic:
Professional issues: diversity and inclusion
Third topic:
Education
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
Hamilton Integrated Research and Ethics Board
Provide the ethics approval number:
Project #14770
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
Yes

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