The Installation Committee of the Order of Physiotherapists recently met with the Order of Doctors of Dentistry. In this meeting several issues were addressed and the bases for future cooperation protocols between the two orders were discussed.
Presence of the Installation Commission at the National Meeting of Physiotherapy Students (ENEFt)
The President of the Installation Commission of the Portuguese Order of Physiotherapists, Isabel de Souza Guerra, was present last weekend at the National Meeting of Physiotherapy Students (ENEFt).
Isabel de Souza Guerra was at the opening table of this event and also participated as a lecturer in the Fisiomeeting, with the theme "Update with the Order", which had about 300 participants.
The Installing Commission congratulates the Organizing Committee of ENEFt and the entire structure of the Interest Group - Youth Movement in Physiotherapy (GIMJF) for organizing the event in the middle of the pandemic, praising the dedication and dynamism of the GIMJF direction for the improvement of the representation of the students of
Physiotherapy and young Physiotherapists in Portugal.
Vaccination plan - COVID 19
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the Commission Instaladora da Ordem dos Fisioterapeutas (CI-OF) has been raising awareness of the right of physiotherapists to be vaccinated in the 1st phase of the vaccination plan, as health professionals who are at high risk of contracting the disease and spreading it, regardless of the context/sector in which they work.
The CI-OF has been urging Physiotherapists to register on the official platform and has appealed to those responsible for the establishments to promote, directly and/or indirectly, registration in the respective vaccination programme. However, we know that the vaccination of physiotherapists who develop their activity in a private context has been slow.
In this regard, the Commission for the Installation of the Order of Physiotherapists, without prejudice to the fact that it does not yet hold the file on physiotherapists working in Portugal, given that it still belongs to the ACSS, has requested the Task-Force to use its best endeavours to ensure that the vaccination plan for all physiotherapists during the first vaccination phase is carried out.
Finally, the CI OF shows its availability to be a facilitating element in the whole vaccination process of the Portuguese physiotherapists, although it has not been contacted for this purpose up to now.
World Education Day
All human beings have the right to education. So it is written in the 26th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, pointing to education as an integral part of the "full development of the human personality and the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms".
We have the privilege of living in a modern society, where there is space to ask questions such as the quality of education or its capacity to prepare people for the full exercise of their professions. If for most institutions education is an important point, among many others, the Order of Physiotherapists has in this area one of its great priorities, especially at the higher education level.
By being closer to the professionals and users, we safeguard the interests of both and of Physiotherapy in general. It is in everyone's interest to guarantee the best preparation for the exercise of the profession, in this sense you can count on the Order of Physiotherapists to be in the front line for the defence of a quality education
Parliament votes on the creation of the Order of Physiotherapists
The parliament voted on 3rd July the proposals for the creation of the Physiotherapists Order already approved in the parliamentary speciality.
Last week, the parliamentary Labour Commission approved the creation of the two new professional associations, and today the proposals will be voted on in final form in the plenary of the Assembly of the Republic.
The creation of the Order of Physiotherapists received the favourable votes of the PS and the CDS, with the abstention of the remaining parties.
On the PSD side, Joana Barata Lopes told Lusa last week that the party abstained because it believes that professional associations should be created in exceptional cases, when the State is unable to ensure their regulation, namely due to conflicts of interest. However, she believes that professionals should not be the ones "to pay" for a lack of regulation by the Government.
The National Council of Professional Orders had already spoken out in late 2017 against the creation of the Order of Physiotherapists and also against the idea, which did not go ahead, of creating an Order of Health Technicians.
The Council, which brings together more than 300,000 regulated professionals, considered at the time that the orders have their own legislation and are only justified in "exceptional circumstances, which must be explained".
In Portugal there are currently 16 professional associations, eight of which are in the area of health.
Source: Public
Identity of the Order: reasons for choice
The Installation Commission of the Order of Physiotherapists promoted a competition for the development of its personal identity. Several proposals were presented, and the installing commission decided on the one that presented the best guarantees of fulfilling the objective of a professional identity.
The option for a sober, yet current brand that could transmit and identify the Order's work in any context was a priority. Knowing that digital environments will be privileged in the order's contact with its associates and partners, we sought an identity adapted to this reality, easily applicable to any communication platform.
The identity is developed from rounded shapes favoring the blue colour, which is already part of the references of physiotherapists. The option for the blue colour is due to the fact that it is the representative colour of the profession, but also the colour of sympathy, harmony and fidelity. Through the rounded shapes we transmit movement and dynamism, values that we consider essential in Physiotherapy and in the Order of Physiotherapists.
Memorandum of Understanding with the Portuguese Association of Physiotherapists
The memorandum of understanding between the Portuguese Association of Physiotherapists (APFisio) and the Installation Commission of the Order of Physiotherapists (OF), represents the excellent institutional relationship between the two structures, which have as a common objective the development of physiotherapy and physiotherapists in Portugal.
Following a meeting between the two structures last March, the following points of understanding between the two institutions were reached:
1. Develop efforts of institutional cooperation at national and international levels in order to defend the superior interest of Portuguese physiotherapists;
2. To establish the progressive and necessary conditions so that, as soon as possible, the OF will have a seat, by affiliation, in the World Physiotherapy, thus ceasing the participation of APFisio in the aforementioned organ;
3. APFisio authorizes the OF to use the documents published by APFisio and World Physiotherapy translated and adapted by APFisio, which may be the object of its own edition by the OF;
4. The setting up committee of the OF undertakes to define the relationship model with the APFisio interest groups until the formal creation of the Specialty Colleges of the OF;
5. The APFisio Board of Directors recognises the OF as the natural "heir" to its historical role.