NZ Physio Registration key terms

The 1840 agreement between Māori chiefs and the Crown, comprising a Māori text and an English text with materially different meanings. Its principles of partnership, participation and protection shape health service design and physiotherapy practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A practice standard in which the clinician examines their own culture, power and biases, and the health system adjusts so the person receiving care feels respected and safe in their own cultural identity. It is determined by the patient, not the clinician.

A lifelong, self-reflective stance in which the clinician accepts limits to their cultural knowledge, actively asks rather than assumes, and shares power in the therapeutic relationship. It complements cultural safety by focusing on the clinician's ongoing learning.

Planning and delivering care with the wider family group involved in decisions, support and rehabilitation, as the person wishes. It recognises collective decision-making and caregiving roles rather than treating the individual in isolation.

A Māori-designed, whānau-centred approach to health and social wellbeing in which services work together around family goals rather than around single conditions or provider boundaries. Physiotherapists may work within or alongside such collectives.

Frameworks such as Te Whare Tapa Whā (taha wairua, taha hinengaro, taha tinana, taha whānau) and Te Pae Māhutonga that describe wellbeing holistically. Using them helps clinicians assess and plan care that reflects how a person understands their own health.

Fairness in health outcomes, achieved by allocating resources and designing services according to need so that avoidable differences between groups, including Māori and non-Māori, are reduced rather than merely acknowledged.

Differences in health status or access that are avoidable, unjust and systematically produced by social, economic and institutional arrangements. Recognising inequity requires looking at who is missing from services, not only at those who attend.

The conditions of birth, growth, living, working and ageing, including income, housing, education, employment and transport, that shape health and access to rehabilitation. They influence whether a person can attend, afford and benefit from physiotherapy.

A person's capacity to find, understand and use health information to make decisions. Clinicians support it by using plain language, checking understanding and offering written or visual resources matched to the person's needs.

Arranging a qualified health interpreter, rather than relying on family members, when the patient's preferred language is not English, and documenting consent and information-sharing accordingly. This protects accuracy, privacy and informed choice.

A person's voluntary agreement to assessment or treatment after receiving adequate information about benefits, risks, alternatives and the right to decline. Consent is an ongoing process, and capacity must be considered for each decision.

A New Zealand code setting out ten rights of people using health and disability services, including respectful treatment, effective communication, informed choice, privacy and the right to complain. It applies to physiotherapists in all settings.

The rules under the Health Information Privacy Code and Privacy Act governing collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal health information. Clinicians share only what is necessary, with consent or a lawful exception.

The range of activities a physiotherapist is competent and authorised to perform, defined by training, registration and context. Working outside it without supervision or additional competence is unsafe and may breach professional standards.

The ongoing requirement to maintain the knowledge, skills and health necessary for safe practice, including continuing professional development and self-declaration to the regulator. Impairment or unsafe practice must be managed and may require notification.

A legal and ethical obligation to act reasonably to protect patients from foreseeable harm within one's role. It includes recognising deterioration, escalating concerns and not abandoning a patient without appropriate handover.

The process of directing a patient to another clinician or service when needs exceed one's competence, setting or resources, with clear communication of findings and urgency. Timely escalation is a safety behaviour, not a failure.

Routine infection-control measures applied to all patients, including hand hygiene, appropriate personal protective equipment, safe sharps handling and environmental cleaning. They assume every person may carry a transmissible organism.

Additional measures used for specific infections beyond standard precautions, such as contact, droplet or airborne precautions with dedicated equipment, isolation and restricted movement. Selection depends on the organism's route of transmission.

The defined points at which hand hygiene is performed, such as before and after patient contact, after body-fluid exposure and after touching the patient's surroundings. Correct timing reduces cross-transmission more than technique alone.

A set of practices used to prevent contamination of a susceptible site during procedures such as wound dressing or catheter care. It includes sterile equipment, a clean field and controlled movement around the area.

The systematic recording and review of adverse events, near misses and hazards so that causes and system factors can be addressed. Reporting is a professional responsibility and supports open disclosure to the person affected.

Honest, timely communication with a patient and their whānau after an adverse event, including what happened, its likely consequences, what will be done and an apology. It is expected practice and supports trust and resolution.

The cognitive process of gathering and interpreting findings, generating and testing hypotheses, and choosing and revising management in partnership with the patient. It is explicit, reflective and responsive to change over time.

An assessment approach in which history and examination are selected to confirm or refute specific diagnostic possibilities, with findings interpreted against known patterns. It is efficient and reduces unfocused testing.

Clinical features in the history or examination suggesting serious pathology such as fracture, infection, malignancy or cauda equina syndrome, which require urgent escalation rather than routine management. Their presence changes the plan immediately.

Standardised, validated tools used to quantify a patient's function, symptoms or participation at baseline and follow-up, such as the ODI or DASH. They support shared decision-making and demonstrate change beyond subjective impression.

The smallest change in an outcome score that a patient would perceive as beneficial, used to judge whether a real improvement has occurred rather than measurement noise. It is specific to the measure and population.

A ranking of study designs by their capacity to reduce bias when answering a clinical question, from systematic reviews and randomised trials down to case reports and expert opinion. The best available design depends on the question type.

Systematically judging a study's validity, results and relevance to one's own patient before applying its findings. It includes checking for bias, appropriate analysis and applicability to the local population and setting.

A quality-improvement cycle comparing current practice with an agreed standard, then implementing change and re-auditing. It differs from research because it evaluates existing care rather than generating generalisable new knowledge.

Structured, iterative efforts to make care safer, more effective and more equitable, often using plan-do-study-act cycles and measurement over time. It engages frontline staff and patients in designing and testing changes.

Collaboratively agreeing goals that matter to the person, expressed in meaningful activity terms and reviewed over time, rather than goals chosen only by the clinician. It improves engagement and reflects the person's priorities and context.

A format for writing goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, used to make rehabilitation targets clear and reviewable. Goals should still be owned by the patient rather than imposed.

Clear, structured exchange of information among team members, for example using SBAR or closed-loop handover, so that decisions and responsibilities are understood. It reduces error at transitions and supports coordinated care.

A structured, supportive relationship in which a clinician reflects on practice with a more experienced colleague to develop reasoning, manage uncertainty and maintain standards. It is distinct from line management and from informal peer support.

A communication technique in which the clinician asks the patient to explain the plan in their own words, revealing misunderstandings immediately. It is more reliable than asking whether the patient understood.