Think about how much time you spent learning about the 'normal' body in physiotherapy school. Think about how much time you spend in clinical practice assessing people to see what's 'abnormal.' And all of those clinical trials that develop sensitive, reliable and valid measures of activity, bodily function, movement and pain; all based on some universal notion of normality. Tests and measures have to assume that there is one universal normal for them to be universal. So, in principal, a score of 13 on the Modified Borg Scale means the same thing in Afghanistan as it does in Alaska, and a BMI of 28 is obese no matter where you live. Physiotherapists learn the principal of … [Read more...] about New: Normals
Are we gatekeepers, or locksmiths?
This post was published earlier on Michael Rowe's blog. Micheal is a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network and has given permission to reproduce his blogpost here. David Nicholls at Critical Physiotherapy recently blogged about how we might think about access to physiotherapy education, and offers the metaphor of a gated community as one possibility. The staff act as the guards at the gateway to the profession and the gate is a threshold across which students pass only when they have demonstrated the right to enter the community. This got me thinking about the metaphors we use as academics, particularly those that guide how we think about our role as examiners. David’s … [Read more...] about Are we gatekeepers, or locksmiths?
Why physiotherapy is not patient centred
Patient centredness is becoming a widely used, but poorly understood, concept in medical practice. It may be most commonly understood for what it is not—technology centred, doctor centred, hospital centred, disease centred (Miller, 2001: 322). There are a lot of practitioners and professional bodies that claim that their practice is patient centred. And why not. If people expect this to be stated as a defining feature of health professional practice today, why wouldn't you say it? After all, we work with patients don't we? We treat people every day. How could we not be patient centred? But isn't it interesting that this needs stating at all? Because how could health care not be patient … [Read more...] about Why physiotherapy is not patient centred
Theorizing therapy: Latest research from South Africa
The latest edition of the South African Journal of Occupational Therapy includes some papers theorizing OT in ways that might be interesting for people interested in theorizing physiotherapy practice. The links connect you with full access versions of the articles. Thanks to Frank Kronenberg for the link. Guest editorial: Theorising about human occupation Ramugondo, EL; Galvaan, R; Duncan, E text in English · pdf in English Theorising social transformation in occupational science: The American Civil Rights Movement and South African struggle against apartheid as 'Occupational Reconstructions' Frank, Gelya; Muriithi, Bernard Austin Kigunda abstract in English · text in … [Read more...] about Theorizing therapy: Latest research from South Africa
Being critical
In yesterday's post I mentioned the Hybrid Pedagogy site and the work they had done to define what it means to be critical in education. As a critical physiotherapy network, it's probably important that we do the same thing and articulate how we think we are critical, because there are so many different meanings for the word, it could easily be misleading. Critical can mean: Intensive care and the physiotherapy that is given to people in life-threatening situations Critically and systematically analysing the quality and content of research articles These are almost certainly the approaches to criticality most familiar to physiotherapists today. The first is a very specialised field of … [Read more...] about Being critical
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #9 – Naomi Eisenberg
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Over the next few days I'll post up some of the feedback and thoughts that these pieces. Remember to send comments on these things too and I'll pull them all together. This post came from Naomi Eisenberg Departments of Allied Health and Vascular Surgery, University Health Network, Toronto and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Naomi Eisenberg Well, I think that a logical critique of the medical model could evolve from Foucault and his thoughts on the medical gaze…in The Birth of the Clinic he writes of how the patient is … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #9 – Naomi Eisenberg
Interview with Clare Kell
As part of our 'interview' series with people in the Critical Physiotherapy Network, I asked Clare Kell some questions about her approach to physiotherapy, research and life in general. Clare was the author of a paper titled 'Making practice education visible: Challenging assumptions about the patient's place in placement environments' (International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 21(8), 359-366). Clare is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Lead at Cardiff University in Wales (KellC@cardiff.ac.uk). You can find Clare's CPN member profile here Where does your interest in health care education - and particularly patient-centred care in physiotherapy - come from? This is a hard … [Read more...] about Interview with Clare Kell