A friend of mine recently sent me this cartoon after hearing me talk about some work that I've been doing looking at the history of physical therapies in New Zealand in the 19th century (in short - there was none). It got me thinking about the lack of really good critical historical work in physiotherapy; the kind of thing that goes beyond just the linear narrative of one event following another and, instead, tells you something about the conditions that made the present possible. There are some really stunning historical works in health and medicine, particularly around how we have come to understand the body and health care (see a very selective sample of references below), but it … [Read more...] about Doomed to repeat
The social model of disability and physiotherapy: Some personal reflections from Mike Oliver
Many of you will know of the Social Model of Disability, and some will have followed the work of its founder Mike Oliver. We approached Mike to write a post for criticalphysio blog a few weeks ago. This is Mike's response to the challenge of the social model of physiotherapy for future practice. It's more than thirty years this year since I published a book introducing the social model of disability onto an unsuspecting world (Oliver 1983). The idea behind it stemmed from the Fundamental Principles of Disability document first published in the mid-1970s (UPIAS 1976) which argued that we were not disabled by our impairments by the disabling barriers we faced in society. A couple of years … [Read more...] about The social model of disability and physiotherapy: Some personal reflections from Mike Oliver
Why you need to reject ethical guidelines if you want to practice ethically
Being critical to me is not about learning how to systematically review an article or deciding whether someone has used the right statistic test in their study. Rather, it's about asking fundamental questions about what I believe in, why I believe in those things, and what those things make possible and what they deny. I've tried to illustrate these principles this week with some posts that are superficially about sex and sensuality, but are really about how physiotherapists treat people. Sometimes this means subverting fundamental beliefs and upturning things that seem so obvious and taken for granted (quotidian, to use the fancy word), so that you can be sure that your moral compass … [Read more...] about Why you need to reject ethical guidelines if you want to practice ethically
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
The Experience of Practice-Based Educators: Supporting Disabled Physiotherapy Students
Each day over the next week I'll post up an abstract for a paper being presented by a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network at the In Sickness and In Health conference in Mallorca in June 2015. (You can find more information on the conference here.) The Experience of Practice-Based Educators: Supporting Disabled Physiotherapy Students By Karen Atkinson In the UK we have a substantial history of disabled people entering the physiotherapy profession. The most well-known group is probably those who have visual impairments. Over the last 20 years, however, the picture has changed with more students and graduate physiotherapists who are, for example, users of mental health services, … [Read more...] about The Experience of Practice-Based Educators: Supporting Disabled Physiotherapy Students
Embodied ways of knowing in physiotherapy – unexplored competencies?
Each day over the next week I'll post up an abstract for a paper being presented by a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network at the In Sickness and In Health conference in Mallorca in June 2015. (You can find more information on the conference here.) Embodied ways of knowing in physiotherapy - unexplored competencies? By Anne G. Langaas The glocal phenomenon under scrutiny in this presentation is the marginalization and uncertain status granted to certain ways of knowing in physiotherapy. The empirical material was generated through a study of Norwegian students of physiotherapy. Different ethnographic methods were used including repeated dialogic interviews/conversations with … [Read more...] about Embodied ways of knowing in physiotherapy – unexplored competencies?
Re-inventing artisans for 21st century health care
Each day over the next week I'll post up an abstract for a paper being presented by a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network at the In Sickness and In Health conference in Mallorca in June 2015. (You can find more information on the conference here.) Re-inventing artisans for 21st century health care By David Nicholls Calls for health professionals to be more than ‘technical rationalists’ have been prominent in professionalization literature for more than half a century. Professions with a strong history of skills-based competence have struggled more than most to respond to these calls. Those that have been heavily influenced by biomedical discourses - professions like … [Read more...] about Re-inventing artisans for 21st century health care