Practising physiotherapy has brought Kate Ward halfway around the world, into business ownership and management, through a master’s degree, and now into becoming just the third practitioner to be registered into the scope of Advanced Practice Physiotherapist (APP).

Now based in the Waikato, Kate graduated with her undergrad degree in the United Kingdom (UK) where she worked for several years before finding her way to Aotearoa New Zealand via a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. “I got to New Zealand fourteen years ago. I backpacked here and then never went home.’’

“My background is all MSK, orthopaedics and hand therapy. As a physiotherapist I worked in England in the NHS and then in the public health system here when I first arrived in Gisborne.

“After that I moved to Hamilton hospital working in outpatients before a position came up in hand therapy that took me on my journey to becoming a registered hand therapist and graduating with a Master of Health Science in Musculoskeletal physiotherapy through AUT.

“I completed my master’s because I think as a profession if we want to empower the profession and empower ourselves to have a bigger voice in healthcare then we need to go into those postgraduate areas to really upskill ourselves.”

For Kate that led to a move into private practice with Align Health. “I’ve worked with Align Health for eleven years and about seven years ago I became a shareholder. We’ve been busy growing the company and growing the services we offer and now have an awesome team working from six clinics across the region.

“I basically have many roles, as Clinical Director, working clinically as a hand therapist and physiotherapist, leading our clinical governance, service development, completing tenders for ACC and the list goes on.’’

Asked about why she decided to apply for APP scope Kate’s response is definitive. “What really drove me was looking for a way to empower the profession. I think we as physiotherapists within the medical profession can sometimes get stuck in an old historical system where it’s led by our medical colleagues.’’

“But as physiotherapists we are the experts in MSK and I think allowing us to bring in these scopes – APP and Specialists – provides a way to strengthen our voice in the medical community.”

So, what does that look like? “I think in New Zealand like we’ve seen in other countries it’s about moving to an APP led client-centred care model. They do it in Australia, they do it in the UK, and the initial feedback and research coming out of there is that it’s more effective and that it’s helping offload the overburdened primary care system.

“And we need to have these scopes of practice so that we can prove physiotherapy practitioners have the advanced knowledge to do that well, and to do it safely.

“APP scope does take time and commitment but I’m glad I went through it, and I just want to give a shout out to my colleagues. I am surrounded by the most amazing people who, as always, have been a great sounding board and support.”