Physiotherapy, Exercise and Physical Activity Course

This course will run for 6 weeks from 4th July 2016.  

If you would like to join the next course please register here.

Course Type - Open, Online
Course Reference - PP07
Course Co-ordinators - Ann Gates, Rachael Lowe
Institution - Exercise Works and Physiopedia
About this course - This online course will develop knowledge of Physical Activity.
Who can take part- This course is aimed at Physiotherapy and Physical Therapy professionals, clinicians, students and assistants; other interested health care professionals interested in this subject are more than welcome to participate. 
Date of next course -  4 July 2016
Time commitment - approximately 24 hours over 6 weeks
Requirements - You will complete online learning activities, engage with additional resources, take part in the conversation online and complete the course evaluation.
Assessment - There will be a final quiz and you will be asked to write a case study on physical activity.
Awards - Completion certificate.

This course is brought to you by Exercise Works

Course Pages

• Pre-Course Activities
• Course Activities
• FAQ's

Aim

This inter-disciplinary educational resource is designed to help healthcare professionals understand the size of the problem of physical inactivity in populations globally, the role of physical inactivity in the causation of a number of conditions and the benefits of exercise in treatment and prevention, and to encourage those who access the course to perform and evaluate interventions to increase physical activity in their settings. The course aims to inspire and support all health care professionals to lead on physical activity advocacy and action within their practice, from local to global action.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will:

1. understand the basic principles of the relation between exercise and health
2. understand the role of physical activity in chronic illness
3. become "physical activity champions and advocates" and pledge to "make every contact count" for physical activity
4. lead change at: patient, practice, community, national and international levels, in support of better access to physiotherapy, exercise, physical activity and leisure time opportunities for patients and the public.

Intended audience

This course is suitable for any Physiotherapy or Physical Therapy professionals including clinicians, assistant or students who have a good understanding of the key principles of physiotherapy but wish to understand more about including physical activity in their clinical practice. It will also be of interest to any health care professionals (e.g. nurses, occupational therapists, medical doctors, fitness professionals, community outreach workers) motivated to upgrade his/her knowledge on physical activity for health.

Course structure

Participants will be given a number of tasks each week to complete, namely:

1. Complete between 2 and 5 learning topics each week that consist mainly of reading tasks
2. Look at additional readings, videos and resources
3. Complete a short quiz
4. Contribute to an online discussion run through the Discussion Forum
5. Share conversations and learning on social media platforms using the hashtag #PEPA16. 

You will also be actively encouraged to share your course activities and reflections through your own social media platforms. Please follow @physiopedia and @exerciseworks and join in and share the conversations on physiotherapy, exercise and physical activity via #PEPA16.

In order to accommodate all internet bandwidth scenarios there are no presentations or webinars that you are required to view.  There are some YouTube videos that it will be helpful if you can watch.

Time commitment

This course is 6 weeks long.  Participants will be required to devote a minimum of 4 hours per week to the course.  These 4 hours can be completed at a time that suits you, there is no requirement to be online at a specific time.

Forum for online discussion

The online discussion will be an important aspect of this course and participants will be required to post at least one comment each week.

Only participants of the course will be able to post and read discussions within this group.

Language

The course will be run in English although participants will only require basic English skills (reading skills are more important than conversational skills). Participants will be encouraged to be respectful and empathetic to those for whom English is not their first language (e.g. in the discussion forum, online comments).

Accreditation, Assessment and Certification

On the successful completion of this course each participant will be provided with a Physiopedia certificate of completion and PP+ points (our own Physiopedia Plus points which are equivalent to CPD points/CEUs). These will be awarded provided you have:

1. Contributed to the online discussion each week
2. Completed the pre and post course competency tool
3. Passed the final course quiz
4. Submitted a case study on physical activity during week 6
5. Completed a course evaluation form

People involved in this course

Course co-ordinators

The course coordinators for this course are Ann Gates from Exercise Works and Rachael Lowe from Physiopedia. Both Ann and Rachael believe that exercise and physical activity can promote health, prevent chronic disease and illness, cut the cost of treating chronic disease, help people recover from illness and improve quality of life in those living with long-term conditions. This course could also offer the basic theoretical knowledge before a more advanced practical course tailored to specific needs.

• Ann Gates
• Rachael Lowe

Course facilitators

Our course facilitators are all clinicians with a great deal of experience of integrating exercise and physical activity into health care. They have been instrumental in creating the course content and will be guiding you through the course and answering your questions in the discussion forum each week.

• Anna Lowe
• Fiona Moffat
• Roger Kerry
• Brian Johnson
• Michelle Lee

Course Contacts

Throughout this course you should email us if you have any problems at all. We would prefer that you let us know about problems or difficulties that you have encountered so that we can provide assistance.

Contact course co-ordinator

Resources

You might find this list of resources useful throughout the course:

• UK physical activity guidelines
• Everybody Active Every Day
• Global Observatory for Physical Activty
• WHO Physical Activity
• Global Health Observatory (GHO) data
• Review of Best Practice in Interventions to Promote Physical Activity in Developing Countries
• Costa EF, Guerra PH, dos Santos TI, Florindo AA. Systematic review of physical activity promotion by community health workers. Preventive medicine. 2015 Dec 31;81:114-21.
• Gates AB. Training tomorrow's doctors, in exercise medicine, for tomorrow's patients. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015 Feb 1;49(4):207-8.
• England NHS. An Implementation Guide and Toolkit for Making Every Contact Count: Using every opportunity to achieve health and wellbeing. London: NHS England. 2014.
• Dr Brian Johnson, Prof Steven Rollnick, Dr Alex Wright, Prof Andrew Lemmey, Dr Eleanor Tillet, Mr Andrew Tullo, Dr John Brooks and Dr Christopher Speers. Exercise Medicine for Students: A one-stop resource for the knowledge and promotion of physical activity

Thanks!

Thanks to the following organisations and individuals for their contributions to this course:

• Exercise Works!
• Dr Brian Johnson Motivate 2 Move
• The international Exercise Works collaboration of authors and evaluators