Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds 2024: The 7 Competency Roles Every APC Exam Candidate Must Know

Why the Practice Thresholds Matter for Your APC Exam

If there is one document you must understand before sitting any APC assessment, it is the Physiotherapy Practice Thresholds in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Every question on the Written Assessment, every scenario in the Capability Assessment, and every skill evaluated in the Clinical Workshop is mapped back to this single document.

The Practice Thresholds define the minimum level of competence required for registration as a physiotherapist in Australia and New Zealand. Think of it as the rulebook that assessors use to decide whether you pass or fail.

What Are the Practice Thresholds?

The Practice Thresholds were jointly developed by the Physiotherapy Board of Australia and the Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand. The current version was updated on 15 November 2023 and became effective on 1 February 2024, replacing the previous 2015 edition.

The document replaced two earlier standards:

• Standards for Physiotherapy (2006) in Australia
• New Zealand Physiotherapy Competencies (2009) in New Zealand

Both Boards recognised the benefits of professional mobility under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement, which is why a single unified document governs both countries.

Document Structure

The Practice Thresholds are organised at three hierarchical levels:

Level	What It Describes
Role	The essential characteristics of physiotherapy practice
Key Competency	The practices necessary for safe and effective performance
Enabling Component	The measurable characteristics of threshold competence

Each key competency and enabling component begins with the phrase: "Registered physiotherapists in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are able to..."

The 7 Competency Roles

The framework is based on the internationally recognised CanMEDS model adapted for physiotherapy. There are 7 roles, with the Physiotherapy Practitioner role sitting at the centre.

Role 1: Physiotherapy Practitioner (Central Role)

This is the core role that intersects all other competencies. Physiotherapy practitioners integrate knowledge, skills, and values to deliver culturally responsive, evidence-informed, high-quality and safe person-centred management.

Key competencies include:

• Plan and implement efficient, effective, culturally responsive and client-centred physiotherapy assessment
• Involve client and relevant others in planning and implementing safe and effective physiotherapy using evidence-based practice
• Review and determine the need for ongoing physiotherapy
• Advocate for clients' access to healthcare and other services

What this means for your exam: Every clinical case you encounter in the Written Assessment or Capability Assessment tests this role. You must demonstrate systematic assessment, evidence-based treatment planning, and client-centred care.

Role 2: Professional and Ethical Practitioner

Physiotherapists maintain standards of behaviour that comply with their legal, professional and ethical obligations, including management of their physical and mental health.

Key competencies include:

• Comply with legal, professional, ethical and other relevant standards, codes, and guidelines
• Make and act on informed and appropriate decisions about acceptable professional and ethical behaviours

What this means for your exam: Expect questions about professional boundaries, scope of practice, mandatory reporting, informed consent, and ethical decision-making in complex situations.

Role 3: Communicator

Practitioners employ written, verbal and non-verbal methods to effectively and respectfully communicate with clients, family/whanau, other professionals, communities and relevant others.

Key competencies include:

• Use clear, accurate, sensitive and effective communication to support trust and rapport
• Record and effectively communicate physiotherapy assessment findings, outcomes, and decisions
• Manage conflict constructively

What this means for your exam: In the Capability Assessment, assessors evaluate HOW you communicate your clinical reasoning. Clear, structured verbal explanations are essential. In the Clinical Workshop, communication is one of the four assessed domains.

Role 4: Reflective Practitioner and Self-directed Learner

Physiotherapists demonstrate commitment to maintaining and enhancing their professional competence through critical reflection, continuous learning, teaching others, and engaging in research.

Key competencies include:

• Assess own practice against relevant benchmarks
• Evaluate learning needs and engage in continuing professional development (CPD)
• Consume and apply research evidence
• Apply quality improvement principles
• Recognise scope limitations

What this means for your exam: Questions may test your ability to critically appraise evidence, identify when a case exceeds your competence, and describe how you would seek further education or guidance.

Role 5: Collaborative Practitioner

Practitioners work effectively with clients, whanau, carers, healthcare and other professionals using inclusive, collaborative, respectful and consultative approaches to shared decision-making.

Key competencies include:

• Engage in inclusive, collaborative, consultative, culturally responsive and client-centred model of practice
• Engage in safe, effective and collaborative interprofessional practice

What this means for your exam: You will encounter scenarios requiring multidisciplinary team management. Know when and how to refer to GPs, specialists, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals in the Australian context.

Role 6: Educator

Professionals apply learning principles and strategies relevant to the practice context to facilitate learning by other professionals, students, clients, relevant others, funders and insurers.

Key competencies include:

• Use education to empower themselves and others
• Seek opportunities to lead education of others, including physiotherapy students
• Foster a workplace learning culture

What this means for your exam: Patient education is assessed in every clinical scenario. Assessors want to hear how you would educate patients about their condition, self-management strategies, exercise programs, and expected outcomes.

Role 7: Manager and Leader

Leaders contribute to a vision of quality services, manage their time, workload, resources and priorities, and lead others effectively within relevant clinical and professional frameworks.

Key competencies include:

• Organise and prioritise workload and resources for safe, effective and efficient physiotherapy
• Lead others effectively within professional, ethical, and legal frameworks
• Facilitate service delivery changes and improvements in health promotion

What this means for your exam: Expect questions about resource allocation, prioritisation of patients in acute settings, discharge planning, and workplace health and safety considerations.

What Changed in the 2024 Update

The 2024 revision introduced three significant areas of change after extensive consultation across both countries:

1. Cultural Safety and Competence

The updated thresholds place much greater emphasis on:

• Awareness of cultural safety in all clinical interactions
• Providing culturally safe care to diverse populations
• Culturally safe communication practices
• Understanding and addressing cultural biases in clinical decision-making

For APC candidates, this means understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health contexts, cultural protocols, and how cultural factors influence healthcare delivery in Australia.

2. Digital Competence

Reflecting the growth of telehealth, the updated thresholds now address:

• Technology use for remote service delivery
• Appropriate and professional information sharing via digital platforms
• Competent use of digital health tools
• Telehealth consultation standards

This is particularly relevant given that the APEP pathway itself is 80% remote, including the Written Assessment and Capability Assessment.

3. Interprofessional Collaboration

The update expanded expectations around:

• Sharing information effectively with multiple health professionals
• Collaborative interprofessional practice
• Understanding roles of other healthcare team members
• Team-based care coordination

How the Thresholds Map to Each APC Assessment

APC Assessment	How Thresholds Are Tested
Written Assessment	150 MCQs testing clinical knowledge, reasoning, and professional practice across all 7 roles
Capability Assessment	Remote oral exam where you verbally demonstrate competencies across 3 short cases and 1 long case
Clinical Workshop	In-person practical assessment of 4 domains: Communication, Safety and Handling, Clinical Skills, and Professionalism

All assessors use the Practice Thresholds as their reference framework when marking candidate performance.

Study Strategy: How to Use the Practice Thresholds

Step 1: Download and Read the Full Document

Access the official PDF from the Physiotherapy Board of Australia or the Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand. Read it in full at least once.

Step 2: Create a Summary Sheet for Each Role

For each of the 7 roles, write out:

• The role definition (in your own words)
• The key competencies (bullet points)
• Clinical examples of how you demonstrate each competency

Step 3: Practice Applying Roles to Clinical Cases

For every practice case you study, identify which roles and competencies are being tested. Most clinical cases require you to demonstrate multiple roles simultaneously.

Step 4: Focus on the 2024 Updates

Cultural safety, digital competence, and interprofessional collaboration are newer additions and likely to appear in current exams. Make sure you can discuss these confidently.

Step 5: Use the Thresholds as a Checklist

Before submitting your response in any assessment, mentally check: Have I addressed safety? Communication? Ethics? Evidence-based reasoning? Patient education? This ensures you cover the key competency areas assessors are looking for.

Key Takeaways

• The Practice Thresholds are the single most important document for APC exam preparation

• There are 7 competency roles based on the CanMEDS framework

• The document was updated in November 2023 and became effective 1 February 2024

• Three key areas were strengthened: cultural safety, digital competence, and interprofessional collaboration

• All APC assessments (Written, Capability, Clinical Workshop) are mapped to these thresholds

• Understanding the thresholds is not about memorisation - it is about demonstrating competence in clinical practice scenarios

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The Practice Thresholds document is publicly available from the Physiotherapy Board of Australia and the Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand. We encourage all candidates to download and study the full document as part of their exam preparation.