In January 2022, the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators (CAPR) announced they would no longer be running the Physiotherapy Competency Exam - Clinical. However, regulations still require that candidates successfully pass both a written and clinical exam to apply for Independent Practice with the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario.

The College’s Council approved work to develop an alternative tool to assess entry-to-practice competency that meets the clinical exam requirement in the regulations. The College is working with an assessment consultant to develop this new Ontario Clinical Exam and requires input from physiotherapists with a variety of experiences.

The College is currently recruiting physiotherapists and physiotherapy residents from across Canada to participate in one or more focus groups as part of the exam development process.

There are currently two opportunities available – development of a blueprint for the exam and an item writing exercise. Participants will be paid an honorarium.

The College is looking to recruit physiotherapists and physiotherapy residents who represent a wide range of experiences, including individuals educated both outside and inside of Canada and people who work in a range of clinical practice settings, including hospital, long-term care, home care, private practice and more.

The eligibility criteria are listed below for both opportunities. You must meet all eligibility requirements to apply. We encourage you to share this information with anyone who may be interested.

Opportunity One: Blueprint Development Recruitment

The College is looking for physiotherapists who have two years of clinical experience or less, as well as physiotherapy residents to participate in focus group discussions about competencies to be assessed in the Ontario Clinical exam.

Participants will need to attend one two-hour webinar. There will be two dates to choose from and no advance preparation or in person participation is required.

During the webinar, participants will work from a list of physiotherapy competencies to identify which competencies are most performed by entry-level practitioners and important to assess during the exam.

The webinars will take place in late February.

Opportunity Two: Item Writing Session

After an exam blueprint is identified, the next step is the item writing process. This is done to create items (or questions) to assess the competencies included in the exam blueprint.

The College is looking for physiotherapists who have knowledge of entry-level practice OR who supervise new graduates or physiotherapy residents. This includes physiotherapy educators, clinical leaders, and physiotherapists familiar with entry-level practice.

These sessions will be full-day item writing sessions to support the development of the Ontario Clinical exam. No advance preparation or in person participation is required. 

During the full-day writing session, participants will work with the test development consultants to develop items for the exam. 

Note: you may also be asked to participate in two additional webinars. The webinars will be two hours long and dates will be set based on the availability of item writing participants.

The full-day writing session will take place in March, and additional webinars will be scheduled as needed.

If you are interested in applying for either of these opportunities, please complete the online form below and provide a current resumé or CV.

Candidates who are shortlisted for these opportunities will have the chance to discuss them in further detail during the week of February 14. Decisions regarding which candidates are selected to participate in this work will be made by the lead project consultant who is independent of the College. Every effort will be made to ensure that the diversity of the profession is well-represented.

Complete the Form

If you have questions about these opportunities, please contact Joyce Huang, Strategic Projects Manager, at jhuang@collegept.org.