The place of electrophysical agents in Australian and New Zealand entry-level curricula: Is there evidence for their inclusion?

A recent editorial by the Heads of the Australian and New Zealand Schools of Physiotherapy described tensions created in entry-level physiotherapy programs by the need to achieve more within the constraints imposed by limited time and resources (Crosbie et al 2002). At its simplest, the argument was that curricula content has increased, expectations of entry level physiotherapists are higher and contemporary graduates are possibly not as well prepared as previous graduates. No evidence was provided to substantiate these statements but, anecdotally, they are intuitively appealing. Solutions proposed in the editorial were to “judiciously prune dead wood” within the current curricula, to consider decreasing the clinical education component, and to consider structured internships for new graduates, a limited form of initial registration (Crosbie et al 2002).