Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge

Comment

Comment by Bert Davich on October 28, 2009 at 1:56pm

Hi Mike,
I read the Taxonomy research report to be inclusive of modalities.

The comment about concern for how the BOK would address modalities was meant for those who would have a separate BOK for different modalities.

Early in this discussion I thought that would be a good idea, but at some point, (a while back) I came to agree with those who felt that to separate modalities would not be in our best interest.

Comment by Greg Jones on October 28, 2009 at 1:42pm

Carl, I understand and agree with what you are saying about the need to measure the quality of massage education and the need for standards. Maybe looking at programs that are working would be a great start.

You mentioned that you can be replaced if you are not doing a good job but if the only standard is the number of hours then how are you measured?

I'm not measured by hours. The only measurement of hours are the actual clock hours you will be in the course. The program minimum is 750 hours, those working on their AAS will have more. More importantly I'm measured by the students in two ways. 1.) They can notify the massage program director at any time they are unhappy about anything in class. 2.) They answer a two page questioner and are asked to comment honestly about the class they have just finished. I have listed some of the questions for your understanding.

1. The contents of the assignments contribute to my understanding of the subject.
2. Course material is presented in a well-organized manner.
3. Instructor is well-prepared for each class.
4. Instructor demonstrates enthusiasm for the course.
5. Instructor encourages questions and other class participation.
6. Instructor is receptive to opinions other than his/her own.
7. Graded assignments and/or exams relate to material covered in the course.
8. Instructor provides useful feedback on student progress. (strengths and weaknesses)
9. Instructor is accessible to students outside of class.
10. Instructor communicates the subject matter effectively.
11. Instructor stimulates thinking and learning.
12. Instructor is knowledgeable about subject area.

This is conducted by a volunteer student and both me and my teaching assistant are not allowed in the room and the volunteer drops the questioner off at the adminastration building in order to get honest feedback. The evaluation is then processed so the instructor is unable to know who made what comments.

This at least keeps use in-tune with the students learning needs and also allows for intervention by the program director if needed. We also have a yearly massage board meeting where administrators, instructors, past students, and outside massage professionals meet to discuss the massage program and weather it is meeting all the community needs.

Comment by Carl W. Brown on October 28, 2009 at 10:55am

Comment on Les Sweeney’s blog on certification.

http://www.abmp.com/les-sweeney-blog/certifiable

Les, when I graduated for massage school I was going to take the NCB certification but as I learn more about the test I decided against it. I believe that certification is a great idea and I think the industry needs it but it must be meaningful. The testing needs to be correlated with performance. It needs to be based on a cohesive standard that focuses only what people actually use in their practice. Testing for things that most MTs forget in a short time or tings that they will never use in their practice makes no sense.

Based of the first draft the current MTBOK (Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge) project is making the same mistakes. Firstly it is just a list of KSAs (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities) with no standards of competency. The other problem is that they are not dealing with the problem that massage and bodywork has a wide range of modalities with very little in common other than the act of touch. Each has its own BOK. The only thing in common is ethics, business practices, HIPPA regulations, client relations and standard precautions.

A BOK is a standard where you need to achieve a minimal competency in each and every KSA. If you are doing Swedish and cannot drape you should not do Swedish and knowing medians does not make up for a lack of basic Swedish skills.

I think we need to set not only minimum competency skills but and optional higher standard of excellence again build on a model where your educational dollars and time can be correlated to a proven level of excellence. It is one thing to do massage adequately but we should secure the title of Massage Therapist for thouse who have proven an interest and dedication to the profession and not just doing it because the law tells them.

Hours is not a standard and just encourages schools to fill warm seats rather than training people to perform to a standard at the lowest cost.

We need to first focus on Swedish standards because the standards should not only focus on competency of that specific modality and practices based on Swedish techniques but also because we should not inhibit innovation in other forms of bodywork that have different BOKs.

We need to change the licensing laws from practice acts to title acts. Now the laws in many state mandate that people doing other forms of bodywork take classes in subjects that have nothing to do with their work. Had their been these laws in effect in California I would not be practicing today.

In answer to the political concerns of needing licensing to stop prostitution it is the title portions of the practice acts that are used. It is not that prostitutes do bad massage but that they use the term “massage’ and offer services that are not part of massage. In fact if they could catch them actually performing massage they can catch them doing other things as well.

I joined ABMP because I believe that we can not only achieve excellence in the field of massage but also represent the interests of bodyworkers like myself who do not do massage and for whom the legislative climate is driving them out of business.

I suggest that you and others interested in the MTBOK and standards for the profession join us at http://www.massageprofessionals.com/group/bodyofknowledge where you will see a lively discussion from multiple points of view on the subject.

Comment by Mike Hinkle on October 28, 2009 at 10:21am

Hi Greg,

Thank you for putting emphasis back on the student as well. What a student actually gets out of their education to a large degree is what they put into it, provided the information and training they received was not substandard.

You even incorporate different methods of teaching to reach the students. You sound like a very good instructor. And the evaluation is a great way to get feed back. It can be relected upon and improve teaching standards. Thank you for your service!

Comment by Carl W. Brown on October 28, 2009 at 9:56am

Greg, we need standards that students, teachers, schools and the general public can use to measure the quality of the education. Unless we have such a standard education will not improve. You mentioned that you can be replaced if you are not doing a good job but if the only standard is the number of hours then how are you measured? Schools are pressured to produce and if the only thing that they are responsible for is hours they are not motivated to do a better job.

My son transferred from a top rated high school to a charter school over 30 miles away because the reason that students did well at the local school was they had educated parents many of whom also enrolled their kids in after school enrichment programs. We also looked at some local private schools but saw that their measure of excellence was how much homework they could pile on their students. The charter school on the other hand was based on Mel Levine’s “All Kind of Minds” which I think Keith mentioned earlier. To point is that they understood that the challenge of education was to take a group of people with different talents, training, and ways of learning and bring each one of them up to a specific standard.

Schools are different, I even went to one that I believe fostered a sense of insecurity and lack of confidence in their work to encourage students to stick with the program as long as possible before starting out on their own.

Comment by Mike Hinkle on October 28, 2009 at 7:43am

Hi Bert,

This is a good start to research needed for the industry. Why do you feel this should be a concern, regarding the BOK? The BOK is not segragating modalities.

Comment by Bert Davich on October 28, 2009 at 7:27am

Keith,
That article regarding Development of a Taxonomy to Describe Massage Treatment... should be read by everyone in this discussion or who has concerns about the BOK, and in particular those with concerns about how modalities will be addressed.

Comment by Greg Jones on October 28, 2009 at 1:01am

I'm not sure one can measure the actual education students receive by how many clock hours or credit hours they take and pass. Education is a two-way street. The instructor must present the information in different formats to reach all the learning styles and the students have to study and learn the information. What a student actually gets out of their education to a large degree is what they put into it, provided the information and training they received was not substandard. I have had many students return and remark how glad they were to go through the program I help teach in because they always knew more than the other therapists they were competing against. I feel the length of training has something to do with this phenomena. It could take 4-6 semesters to get through the current program not 90 days or 6 months like some of the private schools offer. The classes are college level and not watered down. I don't want to infer that all private schools do this but most are far shorter and three times as expensive. My point is that many people don't learn like Carl and require a greater amount of time to assimilate the large body of information they receive especially the A&P, kinesiology, and psychomotor skills. I know I spend a great deal of time outside the normal class hours helping the students to succeed even with how much time we have.

I respectfully disagree with you Carl in that setting the number of hours "encourages bad instruction", bad management does. I'm not sure what schools you are talking about, but it wouldn't fly in the school I teach. Each class I teach the students fill out a comprehensive evaluation at the end of the class that is taken very seriously. I'm adjunct faculty which means I am contracted one class at a time. They can terminate me at anytime as it should be. So only if there is poor oversight would you have bad instruction that lasted more than a class or two.

Comment by Keith Eric Grant on October 28, 2009 at 12:43am

After teaching tonight, I was briefly working on references for the MTF Best Practices Committee's preparatory material. Came upon the other massage taxonomy that I'd remembered as existing.

Sherman, K. J., Dixon, M. W., Thompson, D., & Cherkin, D. C. (2006). Development of a taxonomy to describe massage treatments for muscul.... BMC Complement Altern Med, 6, 24.

Comment by Mike Hinkle on October 27, 2009 at 7:22pm

I agree schools should be cost effective! Hours or whatever method will not make or break good teachers. Bad instruction is not determined by the parameters being hours, this is a lark.

A good teacher will get students to learn. And any system breaks down to hours. That is how we measure our day. The method being proposed does not have set hours and should not be even considered until this happens. I believe it will take more HOURS!

The University system problem in my opinion is largely due to lazy professors that have tenure. They toe the line until attaining it and then cruise through the rest.

We should include cost effectiveness in our study, but also study what the costs versus time to learn the new way for instructors and then students and we already have a state that has at least three therapists that wants to do this system. (Pilot program or Sunset laws, let's see!)

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