A lot is said about physiotherapy being biomedical and following 'the biomedical model', but what exactly is this, how and why does it underpin physiotherapy? Over the next few blog posts, I'll try to explain the idea of the biomedical model in a bit more detail and show why and how it has influenced physiotherapy. I'm going to tackle 7 key aspects of the model. There are more, of course, but these are considered by most people to be the main ones. Specific aetiology Germ theory Cartesian dualism Objectivity and experimentation Reductionism Normalisation Body-as-machine Understanding something about these will give you a stronger sense of why they're so … [Read more...] about What is the biomedical model #1?
Are health professionals parasites?
There are many powerful critical arguments about health professional practice. Anyone who has studied how health professionals came into being, whose interests they served, or how they've adapted to the broader changes happening in society, can't fail to be shaken by the belief that the fight to become the agents of our own destiny is one with many casualties, many of whom are the people we earnestly claim to serve. Perhaps one of the most powerful arguments pertaining to physiotherapy - especially those areas of the practice that relate to long-term illness and disability - comes from disabled people themselves, who, for more than half a century, have been vocal in their criticism of … [Read more...] about Are health professionals parasites?
Really Good Stuff: Lessons learned through innovation in medical education
Each year, the journal Medical Education produces a list of brief papers called 'Really Good Stuff: Lessons learned through innovation in medical education.' It usually contains some interesting ideas. Here is the latest edition. A peer-reviewed collection of short reports from around the world on innovative approaches to medical education (pages 1101–1102) Article first published online: 12 OCT 2014 | DOI: 10.1111/medu.12600 Introduction (page 1103) M Brownell Anderson Article first published online: 12 OCT 2014 | DOI: 10.1111/medu.12599 Multiple mini-interviews combined with group interviews in medical student selection (page 1104) Shih-Chieh Liao, Tzuen-Ren Hsiue, … [Read more...] about Really Good Stuff: Lessons learned through innovation in medical education
Critical physiotherapy research update
Lived Observations: Linking the Researcher’s Personal Experiences to Knowledge Development Lisbeth Thoresen & Joakim Öhlén As researchers in palliative care, we recognize how involvement with seriously ill and dying persons has an impact on us. Using one’s own senses, emotional and bodily responses in observations might open intersubjective dimensions of the research topic. The aim of the article is to highlight how phenomenological theories on intersubjectivity can be useful to develop rich and transparent data generation and analysis. We present three field note examples from observation in a hospice ward, which illuminate how researcher awareness of aspects of intersubjectivity can … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy research update
Research update – the body, disability, gym, theory, diagnosis and habitus
From the latest edition of Social Science and Medicine, Volume 120 , Pages 1-438, November 2014 The unfinished body: The medical and social reshaping of disabled young bodies Janice McLaughlin & Edmund Coleman-Fountain Medical interventions mark the disabled young body as in need of repair. Such interventions are incorporated into stories of embodied identity. Transitions to adulthood are influential to approaches to fixing the body. Ongoing intervention leaves the body always unfinished and open to remaking. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.012 No time for the gym? Housework and other non-labor market time use patterns are associated with meeting physical activity … [Read more...] about Research update – the body, disability, gym, theory, diagnosis and habitus