This blog post was submitted to the CPN from long time member Shaun Cleaver and colleague Anne Hudon. It raises the issue of the language diversity. This is certainly an issue we have not thoroughly addressed within the CPN: our executive meetings, and all of our international gatherings to date, have been/are conducted entirely in English (including the CPN Salon in South Africa and our un-conference in Wales), and although our website has some translated content (and a widget to translate most other content into a few languages) most remains in English. The Costs of Translation Dans ma vie quotidienne – familiale, sociale, et professionnelle – je communique entièrement en … [Read more...] about The Costs of Translation
Physiotherapy and capitalism
Surely one of the most important projects of the next decade in physiotherapy must be to undertake a thoroughgoing critical analysis of our professional history. By this I mean how did we get to be a profession that looked so distinctly like 'this', and not something else. Perhaps one of the most important questions we need to ask is how has physiotherapy served The State - and how this will change as governments become smaller and push the responsibility for social welfare onto individuals. One of the most intriguing questions that, as far as I know, no-one has really studied, is the relationship between physiotherapy and capitalism. On first glance, it would be hard to see a … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy and capitalism
Physiotherapy as process, not event
Last week, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) updated its advice on the use of autologous chondrocyte implantation for treating symptomatic articular cartilage defects of the knee (link). Perhaps amid all of the other newsworthy events of last week, this announcement passed you by? In reporting on the announcement, however, the CSP's statement said something interesting. It said; The treatment ... is used to help patients with an articular cartilage defect – or early arthritis in the knee – which tends to affect people in their 20s and 30s, often as result of a sporting injury. But the NICE guidance stresses that surgery should only be considered once … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy as process, not event
Pushing at open doors
I have had the good fortune to spend time this last week with one of the world's foremost digital education specialists. Steve Wheeler is someone who has been at the forefront of educational innovation for over a decade now, and he spent last week and this week at AUT working with colleagues in my school. The highlight of his visit so far, for me at least, was a study day that we held over the weekend to look at 21st first century education. We spent the morning at a new school that has embraced the idea flexible learning environments (FLEs). Teaching at my university is often anything but flexible, and classrooms, curricula, and teaching and learning practices often look more rigid the … [Read more...] about Pushing at open doors
A new international community of physiotherapy educators
This message comes from CPN members Michael Rowe and Ben Ellis. We wanted to let you and your colleagues know about some of the developments with In Beta. In Beta is a new international community of physiotherapy educators, we have a Google+ community and schedule online conversations on topics of interest to physio educators every couple of months. We are currently planning our next few sessions which will include: Teaching critical thinking in physiotherapy Innovative approaches to physiotherapy curriculum design Decluttering the pre-registration physiotherapy curriculum If you think these sound like interesting topics or if you have other ideas for future … [Read more...] about A new international community of physiotherapy educators
Reflections on a tweet/Why I joined the CPN
CPN member Blaise Doran responded our call-out to members to write a short statement about why or how they have found their way to a CPN so we could use them as testimonials. However his response was so interesting (and too long for a testimonial) we thought it would work better in a blog post. Blaise Doran BSc (Physio.), GradDip (Neuro. Rehab.), MSc (Pain Mgt.) originally trained and worked in the UK. He is a physiotherapist and the coordinator for the Children’s Pain Management Clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Previously he worked predominantly in adult neurological rehabilitation. Prior to undertaking his physiotherapy degree, he worked for ten years as … [Read more...] about Reflections on a tweet/Why I joined the CPN
An accident waiting to happen
I'm preparing for a keynote lecture at the APA Conference in Sydney in a couple of weeks time, looking at aged care as a 'bellwether' of the physiotherapy profession at large. (Spoiler alert if you're going) I'm going to argue that if we can work out how to provide meaningful physiotherapy to older adults, we'll fix a lot of the problems now besetting the rest of the profession (abstract here). Part of the joy of this kind of work is the opportunity it gives you to think 'otherwise' about seemingly obvious, taken-for-granted things, like ageing as a natural biological process, or our inalienable role as the leaders of rehabilitation for the elderly and disabled. Testing why we think … [Read more...] about An accident waiting to happen