The mission of CE For Therapy is to provide a centralized resource for all physical therapists/physical therapy assistants and other neuromuscular/manual practitioners to identify relevant, up to date and cutting edge continuing education opportunities that are available to them.
We are kicking off our site by presenting CE providers in 4 major categories, based on the format and content used for the presentation, along with our proprietary system that takes into account the number of courses offered, website appearance, and marketing presence such as ads in professional publications, banner ads and emails/snail mailings.
CATEGORIES
Our two Live categories are Prominent Multiple/General Topic Live CE Providers. and Prominent Specialized Topic Live CE Providers. The leading Vendors commonly use terminology such as Live Seminar, Onsite Location Course, or Live Workshop, to describe a CE offering where there is a live instructor physically present. Live Online Webcast, Live Webinars, and Live Video Webcast are commonly used to describe a live but remote/distance learning activity where the instructor is not physically present. Synchronous learning can occur even when an instructor is not physically present through the use of instant messaging, live video conferencing, and live 2-way video.
Our third category is Prominent Online On-Demand Providers, Multiple Topic and Specialized. This category will include vendors who offer courses commonly described as Online On demand, On Demand Webinars, Recorded Webinars, Online Video, streaming seminars, DVD video, or audio CD. Synchronous learning does not occur with these types of courses.
Our Fourth vendor category will be Mixed and Varied Course Offerings, which is not organized according to format, but includes many of the smaller, or single topic prodviders/institutions that offer trademarked, proprietary, or “non prescribed curriculum” and “non-traditional” topics, techniques and certifications.
All vendor listings include a brief description of the course content taken directly from the individual vendor’s website.
At this time, we will not be addressing some other important CE factors such as level of evidence and CE approval. We have found a very useful resource for determining Physical Therapy continuing competence requirements for individual states on the Continuingeducation.com website, link to page is http://www.continuingeducation.com/physical-therapy/state-ce-requirements/ . Another good resource for determining individual state Continuing Competence Activity Approval is the Jurisdiction Licensure Reference Guide on the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy website. Link to site is https://www.fsbpt.net/lrg/Home/LicenseRenewalCourseApproval.
Many of the courses provide some type of description of their approval level, and we are going to let the individual practitioners make their own judgments about evidence levels when they explore the course content at the individual vendor’s website. The American Physical Therapy Association and its various State Chapters are also a good source of CE opportunities for their members, and at this point we have not included any of their specific courses within our listings.