Service Provider Guide

Introduction[edit | edit source]

Do you work for a physiotherapy or physical therapy service? For service providers, Physiopedia offers an opportunity to involve their staff in this knowledge creation process as part of service development programs.

This guide explains how Physiopedia can be used for service development in health care organisations, and also outlines ideas on how staff could incorporate Physiopedia into their continuing education and professional development.

Physiopedia's Reach[edit | edit source]

Whatever you do in Physiopedia, it won't go unnoticed. Physiopedia is the largest physiotherapy and physical therapy resource in the world (data from similar web 1 Feb 2022):

  • #1 rehabilitation website
  • #34 health and medicine website

We reach the global community and current statistics indicate that we have:

  • over 7 million page visits per month;
    • from around 3 million individuals;
    • from every country in the world.
  • In addition to this, we are connected to over 200,000 people through social media.

Wikipedia for the Physiotherapy Community[edit | edit source]

Physiopedia is a wiki. A Wiki is a website that allows users to easily edit and contribute to that website. Wikis are particularly suited to collaborative group authoring of documents and websites. The most famous example of a Wiki is Wikipedia, a very extensive online encyclopaedia that allows anyone to add to and edit its entries.

Wikis for Service Development[edit | edit source]

The nature of wikis means they offer a number of benefits relating to service and staff development:

  • Wikis are ideal for individual or collaborative projects.
  • Wikis can be edited and entries published without the knowledge of specialist web development tools.
  • A wiki enables the development history of a document to be explored revealing who contributed what and when.
  • A wiki will never be lost along with the efforts that have been made in adding content to them, they can be continually updated and always be referred to.

Physiopedia in Staff and Service Development[edit | edit source]

As a wiki, Physiopedia offers physiotherapy clinics and departments an opportunity to involve their workforce in the creation of this global resource as part of service and staff development. 

Physiotherapy and physical therapy clinics and departments could use this opportunity to contribute to:

  • In-service training. A group of staff could be tasked with creating a new Physiopedia article prior to presenting it to the rest of the department or clinic. Examples of this activity could include the development of treatment protocols, patient guides and case studies.
  • Staff development.  Staff involvement in creating, reviewing and updating Physiopedia content is an excellent activity for developing clinical skills.  It will also help develop skills of web use, reflection, critical assessment and writing.
  • Case studies can be added by staff as part of peer review.  Once added to Physiopedia they will be available for all to view and learn from.
  • Individual portfolios can be created from an individuals profile page.  The flexible nature of wikis allows an individual to be very creative in their personal portfolio creation and also allows for very flexible portfolio mentoring.
  • Journal clubs can become involved in Physiopedia's partner site, Physiospot.  Articles can be reviewed by staff and thoughts added to the comments section related to each article. Comments can then be discussed in a face to face session or online with others outside of the service.

Why Get Involved?[edit | edit source]

  • Become a leader in service and staff development by (with our full support) utilising e-learning technologies.
  • Know that you have been a part of the development of this valuable global collaborative effort.
  • Your health care organisation will permanently be featured on our Partners Page.
  • Active engagement with Physiopedia will entitle you to free advertising space on your very own Physiopedia profile page.
  • Encourage your staff to create an online presence in their own profile page to market themselves and their work.
  • Staff involvement in creating, reviewing and updating Physiopedia content is an excellent activity for continuing education and professional development.

Resources[edit | edit source]

Useful Links[edit | edit source]

Further Information[edit | edit source]

For further information or to get involved please contact us.