When Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer, was on his death-bed in 1778, he was asked by his priest if he renounced Satan, he replied "Now, my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." I heard the quote again the other day when I was talking to a friend about the way that the greatest enemies of progress are often one's own colleagues and friends. The subject came up because of two instances in nursing that had shown how unstable some professional ideologies can be when exposed to critical scrutiny. The first instance was the debate surrounding the publication of David Thompson and Philip Darbyshire's paper Is academic nursing being sabotaged by its own killer … [Read more...] about Making enemies of friends
Critical physiotherapy podcast
Late last year I spent a very nice hour with CPN member and passionate physiotherapy-reformer Paul Lagerman, otherwise known as The Naked Physio (link). Paul's website has been using blogging, social media and podcasting as a way to debate our profession for a while now, and he has just published a conversation we had about the past, present and future of the profession and the role that people in the Critical Physiotherapy Network are playing in transforming the profession. You can hear the entirety of the podcast here or through Paul's site. … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy podcast
On openings and closings, choice and change
From Brian Massumi, via Mary Zournazi, via Prof Liz Smythe Zournazi, M. (2002). Hope. New philosophies for change. Annandale, NSW, Austalia: Pluto Press. … [Read more...] about On openings and closings, choice and change
Sonambulismo hacia Sudáfrica
En la misma semana que WCPT envió una llamada pidiendo a todos a contribuir a su estrategia de futuro (enlace), un documento que demuestra que 'Incluso caminar es más peligroso si eres negro' (enlace) me recordó que el próximo congreso WCPT se celebrará en Sudáfrica en 2017, y esto debe representar una oportunidad de oro para demostrar que la fisioterapia tiene algo importante que decir acerca de lo que es una realidad cotidiana para muchas personas en todo el mundo. El estudio de la revista Transportation Research titulado "sesgo racial en el comportamiento de conductores cediendo el paso en los cruces peatonales” mostró que había claros prejuicios raciales en el comportamiento del … [Read more...] about Sonambulismo hacia Sudáfrica
Sleep walking to South Africa
In the same week that WCPT sent out a call asking for us all to contribute to its future strategy (link), a paper showing that 'Even walking is more dangerous if you're black' (link) reminded me that the next WCPT congress will be held in South Africa in 2017, and this should represent a golden opportunity to show that physiotherapy has something critical to say about things that are an everyday reality for many people around the world. The study from the journal Transportation Research titled 'Racial bias in driver yielding behavior at crosswalks' showed that there was clear racial bias in driver yielding behaviour directed at pedestrians, and that 'black people are more likely to be … [Read more...] about Sleep walking to South Africa
New: Disruption
Disruption is a lovely geological word. It suggests shaky ground and lava flows, destabilisation and disorganisation. Most people working in health care today are fed up with disruption though. Most would be perfectly happy if they never saw any more funding cuts, job freezes and reorganisations. Unfortunately we know that disruption is an everyday occurrence in a health care system going through a long, slow, seismic unsettling. But disruption need not be negative, and the Critical Physiotherapy Network is one small example of how a group of people are trying to change the rhetoric surrounding disruption and change. The key to this new approach lies with the ideas of openings … [Read more...] about New: Disruption
New: Students
When I entered physiotherapy training in the 1980s, there was a rule at my school that said you had to be more than 5 feet tall to gain entry. I wonder what the people who had made this rule would think about my school recently graduating our first tetraplegic student? Times change, and people's priorities change too. A quick scan through textbooks from the 20th century and you will see that physiotherapy was once dominated by young white women. Now we recruit a lot more men, mature students and people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Part of the reasons for this shift has been the need for physiotherapists to be more representative of the populations they serve, and to achieve … [Read more...] about New: Students