Many years ago, I was one of the first of the new student reps to attend the CSP’s annual Congress. Back then Billy Bragg was railing against the Miner’s Strike and the IR department of the CSP reigned supreme. It became obvious pretty quickly that people took Congress really seriously. The first motion I remember being discussed was a levy on member’s fees to raise funds for Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters. Sadly the motion went no further after being referred to Council, where it ended up disappearing like gold in the San Juan rivershed. Not long after the Congress I attended an Association for Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care meeting and was dismayed to hear the keynote … [Read more...] about New: Activism
New: Alliances
If you were to design a health care system from scratch, and began with the people you wanted to form key alliances with, who would you choose? Doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, podiatrists...? In the past, the choice might have been easy. Health care was strictly hierarchical and doctors were at the top of the pyramid. No health professional could become established without the patronage of the medical profession. But is that still true today? Health care consumers now have much greater choice when it comes to health providers and they are exercising their choice in innovative and interesting ways. Over-the-counter remedies, alternative and complementary therapies, … [Read more...] about New: Alliances
New: Organisations
If you are someone who follows this blog, uses Facebook, Twitter or other social media like email and texting, you may have become quite familiar with the idea that people are now networking in ways that were impossible only a few years ago. A friend of mine was telling me the other day about her eight-year-old son, who was now the embodiment of a digital native. He knew how to log onto their computer, how to search for school projects, and how to use his tablet in the classroom to draw, add, compose and write. She was wondering what the future of work and study would be for him, and whether today's lecturers and practitioners knew what they were in for. According to a report last … [Read more...] about New: Organisations
New: humanities
Although it’s going to be hard to accept, particularly by those people currently striving to make a difference in the profession, but it probably won’t be this generation of physiotherapists that bring about the radical change necessary to prepare the profession for the new world of 21st century health care. There are any number of reasons for this: Physiotherapists are, by and large, a relatively conservative bunch, who don’t instigate radical change Physiotherapy is highly respected and well patronised, so there are few indicators that we need to change much Most people in positions of authority have received a traditional training, and tend to like things the way that they are, … [Read more...] about New: humanities
New: Journals
Physiotherapy desperately needs more journals. Not the kind of journals that have 4,ooo word limits, or the kinds that still celebrate passive third-person prose, but the kind where the quality of ideas trump the elegance of the scatter plot. We need journals where physiotherapists can engage in the kinds of discussion you see in Nursing Inquiry, Body and Society or Health. These journals are fora where writers can exercise Karl Popper's assertion that the scholarly community should not prop up existing beliefs, but should commit all its not insignificant resources to tearing down current dogmas and ideologies, creating a space where new ideas can prosper. Physiotherapists have … [Read more...] about New: Journals
New: Old ideas
It is an old cliche, but there is rarely anything entirely new in the world, and sometimes some of the newest and most exciting innovations are merely reinventions of old ideas. Over the last few days, a story has appeared in the news of a young All Black rugby player who, only a few weeks ago, fractured his leg in a game. The story is newsworthy for two reasons: (a) the Rugby World Cup starts in a few days time, and (b) he is only being considered to be fit to play because of a rather unusual remedy. Waisake Naholo’s recovery from a fractured fibula has been reported widely around the world, because he chose to return to Fiji to be treated by his local doctor, Isei Naiova, who had … [Read more...] about New: Old ideas
New: Open badges
Some people reading this blog may be old enough to remember a time when physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other professions allied to medicine were trained in colleges and schools attached to large teaching hospitals. Others will have only known the university system. For most of us though, the university holds a special significance. It is where knowledge is acquired and one discovers the rudiments of one's future practice. (Of course, we all know the real learning takes place in the clinical environment, but this only serves to enhance the ivory tower image of the university and the people working within it). You used to go to university to acquire an education and a … [Read more...] about New: Open badges