Faced with the explosion in the number of practitioners, the government has just decided to strengthen the supervision of the profession of osteopath, in a decree published this Sunday in the Official Journal.
The text, which will come into force at the start of the 2015 school year, aims to harmonize and improve the quality of the many training courses provided in France in order to avoid abuses.
To obtain their approval, the 30 osteopathic schools will now have to comply with strict rules in terms of the quality and quantity of the courses provided.
Result of a long consultation between the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine, students and trade union organizations of the profession, the decree which consolidates that of September 12, 2014, stipulates that the training must last 5 years, ie 4,860 hours (excluding personal work). This hourly volume should be divided into seven major teaching areas, and shared between theoretical and practical training.
The new regulatory framework established by the decree also plans to tighten the approval criteria necessary for osteopathic training, for example by requiring teachers to prove at least 5 years of experience in the field.
By this decree, “the government reaffirms its desire to guarantee the quality of the teaching and schools of osteopathy throughout the territory in order to secure the care of people resorting to osteopathy”, we can read in the communicated.
16,000 new practitioners in 12 years
This decree in fact attempts to regulate a profession which is constantly developing in France. It is estimated that we have gone from 4,000 osteopaths in 2002 to around 20,000 today.
While half of them come from the medical field (8,000 physiotherapists, 1,800 doctors, nurses, chiropodists or even midwives) and have followed additional training, the other half have only training as an osteopath, without general knowledge in the field of health.
By this decree, the government hopes that the profession of osteopath will gain in seriousness and quality, a pledge of confidence for the patients who have recourse to it.
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