I'm licensed in both my home state of New Hampshire and my "someday" home state of Florida. Since all massage therapists in Florida have license renewals at the same time in August, I've been getting inundated with offers for continuing education (CE).
As the renewal date gets closer and closer, the CE advertisements are more and more geared toward online courses. I have always gone a bit overboard on continuing education, usually greatly surpassing the needed minimum hours, because I just love learning more about "what works to do what and how" with manual therapies. I rarely have to worry about taking extra hours when license renewals are due. Florida requires some courses that are specific to Florida licensees. They require medical errors, Florida laws, and HIV/Aids coursework for each renewal. The topics make sense to me, and most of the courses I have taken have been interesting and poignant. They also lend themselves nicely to an online format, which makes completing them cost-effective and convenient.
There has been a lot of discussion in the past year or so on the benefits (or lack thereof) of a distance education format in massage therapy. I'm still gathering data to decide what I think may or may not be appropriate. I know I would prefer not to book an appointment with a new therapist to deal with a persistent issue if I knew their only massage schooling had been online. As much as I enjoy taking online continuing education myself, I know I also benefit greatly from the direct and immediate feedback that only is available from an onsite learning experience.
So, what is or is not appropriate for distance education in massage therapy? Who gets to decide? How do they measure the effectiveness or applicability and what yardsticks do we use to make decisions? And should the discussion be for all educational offerings or just continuing education?
I certainly don't have answers to these weighty questions, but I do have current thoughts that I am willing to throw into the mix. First, I see no reason that distance education concepts can't be effectively incorporated into both initial and continuing education. I think the subject matter and the desired learning outcomes should determine if something other than "hands-on" learning is appropriate. In initial training, I see no reason why business courses, pathology, anatomy and physiology, ethics, nutrition, massage history and comparative studies in CAM, etc. couldn't be incorporated completely or in part by online methodology. Technique-based coursework is another story. I think an inexperienced massage student requires live feedback on things like pressure on a trigger point, level of appropriate heat from friction strokes, or sensing end-feel in a stretch.
I may be a more liberal thinker than some, however; it's my opinion that technique courses should not be automatically excluded from approval for continuing education. I do not believe that an experienced palpator necessarily needs someone "live" to verify that they are: providing 5-10 grams of pressure, frictioning across the fibers of a muscle insertion or sinking into tissue on a 45-degree angle in the direction of the fibers. If someone were not a skilled palpator, I think they might have difficulty with those concepts, but an experienced therapist should be able to pick up and correctly use those methods from existing skill sets. So, while I'm not married to the idea of available approved continuing education online, I see no reason why it should not be extremely effective for a large segment of our profession.
If this is even remotely true, then the really big question is who should decide if distance education gets approved or not. Should the schools and CE providers have the final say? I think not, as it's most difficult to determine if the motivations are for the best of the profession or the bottom line. Should the professional associations have the final say? I think not, as their stronger forte is to provide member services and promote the use of the profession. Should the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork have the final say? I think not, as the NCBTMB already has determined that distance education will no longer be accepted for approved hands-on learning. Should the individual massage regulatory boards have the final say? Probably! They are the entities that regulate the profession and so are the most logical and appropriate choice to set the standards of practice for their jurisdictions.
I hope the distance education alternatives continue to be discussed. In actuality, I hope all of the above enter into a determination of what makes sense. Each has a perspective best shared. In the final analysis though, we are the keepers of the yardstick! Once the regulators determine our minimum requirements for licensing/relicensing, we need to determine what fits our needs, our practices and our pocketbooks. One size does not fit all. Why not drop me a line and let me know what you think about this!
Thanks for listening!
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Former editor of Massage Today, Cliff is owner of Windham Health Center Neuromuscular Therapy LLC. He is nationally certified in therapeutic massage & bodywork and is licensed as a massage therapist by the states of New Hampshire and Florida. Cliff is a member of the International Association of Healthcare Practitioners; a professional member and past president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association; a certified member of the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, Inc.; and a past chairman of the board of directors of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork.
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