Social Media and Its Impact on Massage Therapy

What is Social Media? Well, if you are reading this, you're experiencing it right now: the world of the web and all the facets of communication it offers. The standing question in my mind and in the mind of many Health Care Professionals is "How does social media impact my practice?" and "How can I use it for my benefit?" and "What are the downsides to social media; where do I draw the line?" All very good and pertinent questions.

Places like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and the various blogging sites available have taken the concept of word-of-mouth and expanded the surface area covered ten-fold. This makes advertising and certain types of marketing simple and affordable if you take the time it may take. It seems that a business that does not have a website may struggle as the next generation becomes their clientele; a generation saturated with on-line presence.

Getting back to the meat of the topic: how do you think social media will impact your business? Will it enhance your productivity or be a weight? How can you position or transition your career to keep up with the expectations of an on-line market

A Brief View of the Year

This has been a very exciting year at PIMT Saskatoon.  We would like to highlight some of the amazing occurrences we've been fortunate to experience this year:

1. This year we are pleased to announce the commencement of our Disabled Student's Equality Program
• This program was created to ensure that each student has an equal opportunity to succeed in the career they choose
• Students who struggle with learning, physical, or psychological disabilities are given the chance to make the most of their education, without being belittled, pushed aside, or forgotten
• We have purposed to create a program that will assist these students in using their strengths in studying, note taking, and examinations while not compromising our evaluation standards
2. As always, we have given our students the opportunity to get out into the community and practice their training through "outreaches" - a supervised time of massage practical and learning
• We started the year working with the Canada Revenue Agency's appreciation day; the students of our first year class had the opportunity to perform relaxation massage for an afternoon
• One of our favourite outreaches is at the University of Saskatchewan's Student "Stress-Less" day; our first year class had the opportunity to work on the students through the most stressful time of year: EXAMS
• We are currently in the midst of an outreach with the MS Society; our senior class is giving over a number of clinical hours specifically volunteering massage treatments for members of the Society (Thank you Cassie for all your help organizing)
• As we look toward the rest of the year, we are looking forward to working with the AIDS Society and the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets
3. We have also had the opportunity to attend a number of career fairs in high schools across Saskatchewan
• In Saskatoon, we visited a number of high schools (including Aden Bowman Collegiate Institute)
• We traveled to Swift Current, Melfort, and Tisdale (to name a few)
4. We are currently working on have a new Part-Time Relaxation Certificate Program approved
• This program would be 250 hours and would certify graduates to work as Relaxation Therapists or Spa Clinicians
• We are currently waiting on approval through the Ministry of Education

In addition to the Institute specific, we have also been a part of the larger picture for Massage Therapy in Saskatchewan:

1. Working alongside the Massage Therapy Association of Saskatchewan and the other Massage Therapy institutes in Saskatchewan to assist the furtherance of the Massage Therapy profession as it pertains to national competencies
• We have been given the opportunity to see and be apart of the action that will hopefully bring legislation to the profession of Massage Therapy - making it a primary health care modality and being recognized as a regulated profession
2. Attending workshops with the Student Financial Assistance Branch of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment, and Immigration - discussing the new initiatives they are putting in place to aid students in their educational endeavours
• Our campus is up-to-date on all information that pertains to financial aid for students in Saskatchewan and are supporting the positive changes SFA has instated for students
3. Spending time with the Saskatchewan Association of Career Colleges, who are tirelessly working toward the betterment of Private Vocational Education in this province
• We are impressed at the willingness of an association to strive for excellence, not only in themselves, but in the Institutes they represent

We have had such an amazing year so far. There is no end to the positive accomplishments and opportunities that we - and others associated with Massage Therapy - can create and/or acquire in this field.

Student Retention, Employment, and Pass Rates

We have recently received statistics from The Ministry of Advanced Education (AE) and The Massage Therapist Association of Saskatchewan (MTAS) concerning our student's retention, employment, and pass rates.

According to AEEI, we have a retention rate averaged at 90% and a graduate employment rate averaged at 91% from 2006 to 2012 (the 2013 statistics are not available yet).

The MTAS board exam is one of the challenges we mission to prepare our students for each year; this exam not only allows them membership with MTAS, but gives them recognition with the Massage Therapist Association of Canada and access to many continuing education opportunities throughout their career.  The following are the graduate pass rates for the written and practical exams for the 2006 - 2009 years (2010 rates are not yet available):

                         2006                   2007                     2008                 2009
Written               95%                    83%                      86%                  89%
Practical             89%                    77%                      93%                  89%

Our graduates also average at 88% who master the written exam and 87% who master the practical exam.

We are proud to say that our curriculum has prepared and is preparing our students for successful careers in Massage Therapy as alumni of the Professional Institute of Massage Therapy.

RMT Job Opportunity

Registered Massage Therapists in or moving to Lloydminster, AB:

The ad is also posted on the bulletin board at the Institute for PIMT Alumni.

November 22, 2010 Student Meeting Synopsis

Topic: Making class more integrative

First of all, I would like to thank the students who participated in the first student meeting.  The expectations set for the meeting were as follows:

• ·         Student freedom to express opinions
• ·         Students able to have a better understanding of staff goals throughout the year
• ·         Possibly present changes to help make class time more meaningful

Administration and Staff had put together a list of items that we have been working to integrate into class time:

1.  Include a more kinaesthetic approach to instructing where possible
2.  Utilize more visual tools
3.  Making sure to have an overview and summary for each class to assist student focus in class
4.  In the works of a pilot program for the Systems Anatomy: Neurobiology class
1.  Utilizing pre-received note packages to allow for more in-class discussion time
2.  Also allows for more hands-on or group work and Q/A sessions with the Instructor
3.  If successful, we will look into implementing this at various times in future classes

The student’s who attended also presented a number of ideas:

1. Increasing follow-up on out of class readings and assignments
2. Lesson planning that includes a wider variety of instructing types
1. “tell us the information in other words/more than one way”
3. Looking into more continuing education for our instructors

Although not all of these points can be addressed in one year, our instructional staff has met to discuss each of these topics and has come out with a plan of action.  As points 2 and 3 of staff items and 1 and 2 of student ideas can be accomplished congruently, the faculty will focus on these first.  Administration and faculty have been working very closely to update the curriculum to better instruct the widest variety of learning styles without compromising the integrity of the information; we are planning to continue delivering the most accurate and promising course we can provide.

Keep checking up on the progress of these additions to our educational dexterity.  As the year comes to the half-way point, we look forward to watching and helping our students mature and grow personally and in their pursuit of a career in Massage Therapy.