Programme Overview

The population is aging and a greater contribution should be made to the health care and social services due to the increasing volume of promotion and prevention activities, and the musculoskeletal disorders are in the second place among disability causes and the most common reason for chronic pain. The purpose of the Master’s programme at Tartu Health Care College is to provide specialist knowledge and skills focussing on the field of musculoskeletal physiotherapy, taking into account the biopsychosocial whole of the individual, independent of their gender, age, and field of activity.

The programme creates opportunities for the graduates of physiotherapy education to obtain profound knowledge, advanced skills and professional conduct in the musculoskeletal physiotherapy field in order to increase competence as autonomous physiotherapist who manages working individually or as a team member at various health care system levels, as well as in education and research institutions locally or internationally. Moreover, the programme provides supervised research experience that allows graduates to continue their studies in the third cycle of higher education (PhD).

The programme consists of the following modules:

• Basic subjects (24.0 ECTS, incl. electives 6.0 ECTS)
• Specialist subjects in musculoskeletal physiotherapy (66.0 ECTS)
• Master`s thesis (30.0 ECTS)

General Structure of the Programme

Modules/Subjects	Year I / Semester I	Year I / Semester II	Year II / Semester III	Year II / Semester IV
Module of basic subjects 24.0 ECTS (incl. elective subjects 6 ECTS)	Pedagogy 6.0 ECTS Elective 6.0 ECTS	Counselling methods and techniques 3.0 ECTS		Professional development in international cooperation 3.0 ECTS   Management and entrepreneurship 6.0 ECTS
Module of specialist subjects in musculoskeletal physiotherapy 66.0 ECTS	Functional anatomy and kinesiology masterclass 7.0 ECTS Practical posture and movement analysis masterclass 5.0 ECTS	Functional radiology and diagnostic imaging for physiotherapists 3.0 ECTS   Prosthetics and orthotics 3.0 ECTS Biopsychosocial management of the orthopaedic patient/client in physiotherapy I 6.0 ECTS Physiotherapy for pain management 5.0 ECTS   Health promotion and wellbeing I 4.0 ECTS	Biopsychosocial management of the orthopaedic patient/client in physiotherapy II 3.0 ECTS   Health promotion and wellbeing II 3.0 ECTS   Manual techniques in physiotherapy 12.0 ECTS   Basic body awareness therapy 6.0 ECTS
Module of Master’s thesis 30.0 ECTS	Master’s thesis I 6.0 ECTS	Master’s thesis II 6.0 ECTS	Master’s thesis III 6.0 ECTS	Master’s thesis IV 12.0 ECTS