Thursday, June 4, 2009

Scope of practise

Assessment task 1
Due 8th May 2009
Scope of practise
Hannah Howley

Scope of Practice as defined by Massage NZL with relations to being a Massage Therapist.

"Scope of practice defines the knowledge base and professional parameters of a profession"
Fritz,(2004) (St. John, D, Assessment Task 1)

Now, this I found to be a good summarisation of what we know as ‘scope of practice’ in any area of work, namely, the healthcare profession. It is very important, not to mention, professional to have such guidelines to work from. Boundaries and such are very important when working hands on with another human being.

RMT’S must hold a National (NZQA) Diploma/Degree or equal in Therapeutic Massage. They must have a theoretical basis of knowledge in Human anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and the Theory of Massage. They must have completed a minimum of 30 supervised massage clinical hours during massage training or post graduation. Massage NZ,(2009)

RMT’S must comply with the MNZ RMT Scope of practice which is as follows

- Physical assessment
- Client history details forms
- Client reasoning and a treatment plan
- Delivery of soft-tissue treatments relevant to treatment plan and not missing out other strokes etc
- Evaluations
- Post treatment advice
- Professional presentation and behaviour according to MNZ ethics
- Referral of clients to appropriate healthcare professionals


Certified massage therapists also have a series of guidelines which they must follow and they must also hold a diploma or certificate in MT. They are as follows

CMT’S

- Gathering of client info specific to the client
- If relaxation massage is not appropriate, and need other treatment outside MNZ MMT Scope of practice, refer to an appropriate healthcare professional
- Client consent
- Delivery of treatments relevant to the treatment plan
- Delivery of soft tissue treatments according to industry accepted practices with regards to draping, communication etc
- Post treatment advice
- Professional appearance and ethics.

The scope of practice for both, are relatively straight forward but also broad at the same time. If the MT association was to become a lot bigger and well-known for its benefits, I believe that the scope of practice would have to become a little more in depth and be able to bring attention to new things. A good point that Deb’s made in her blog was that although a MT is requires us to have attained certain qualifications; it surely doesn’t say anything about on-going education for MT. It is very clear in today’s healthcare profession that things are changing and we are becoming more aware of different things and more knowledge is brought to us, which shows us that we need to have continual training on standby to not only become a better practitioner but also be able to provide higher qualities of treatment to our clients.

To sum up my findings, I feel satisfied with the current scope of practice for both professions as they do touch on ethical considerations and professional practice which I think are very important. Although they do need to be made a lot more in depth to prevail our knowledge and professionalism that little bit more.

References

My Own Thoughts

Massage New Zealand. (2009). Retrieved May 8th 2009 from http://www.massagenewzealand.org.nz/


Massage New Zealand, Remedial Massage Therapists Scope of Practice. Retrieved June 5th 2009 from http://ia331408.us.archive.org/2/items/MassageNewZealandDocuments/MnzScopeOfPractice.pdf

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