Regarding the length and detail required in the process of registration with the Order, the Installation Commission of the Order of Physiotherapists clarifies that the composition of the registration form was designed with the help of experts and tested with a sample of colleagues.
On one hand, to guarantee the safety of the users and, on the other hand, from an organisational point of view, to be able to understand, in some detail, who they are, what their educational profile is and in which work contexts they work.
Reinforcing that the Order also has a role to play in "providing services to its members, regarding the professional exercise, namely in relation to information, professional training and technical and legal assistance", the understanding of the profile of its members is essential so that the future elected bodies can equate the type of services to be developed, either in the direct defence of each one, or in terms of the assistential practice itself in public health.
The IC could have opted for a more simplified registration model, in order to deepen the knowledge about its members later on. This is the opportunity and this initial effort to collect an essential set of information to characterize the Portuguese physiotherapists, which is fundamental to assume individual and collective responsibility of physiotherapists in their daily practice.
We are aware that with the future publication of the profile of the members of the Order, the colleagues will feel rewarded for their efforts in filling out the form.