The Latin American Centre for Development of Physiotherapy and Kinesiology and the Colombian Physiotherapy Association are looking to invite a keynote speaker to their IX Meeting of Academics in Physiotherapy and VIII ELA. The meeting will be held in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia on October 30 and 31 of 2019 (but presentations can also be pre-recorded or given online at distance). The meeting will focus on the training of physiotherapists as first contact professionals - both the opportunities and challenges, as well as the issues faced by the social, normative and political contexts in different countries. We would be grateful to hear from you or colleagues that you know who … [Read more...] about Keynote opportunity
Divorce rates among physiotherapists
This isn't the kind of material this blog usually deals with, but there's something fascinating in this recent report from Nathan Yau at flowingdata.com. The report looks at divorce statistics across different occupational groups and shows some interesting things about physical therapists in the United States. How much the findings can be extrapolated to other populations is debatable, but my sense is that there are some sociological principles at play here: perhaps about the linkage between one's profession, education and income and life fulfillment, that needs to be considered. The first set of data looks at divorce rates by occupation, and physical therapists come out with some of … [Read more...] about Divorce rates among physiotherapists
The Costs of Translation
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
A critical thinking sandpit exercise
It's hard sometimes to 'see' your own profession critically. Where do you start? What do you look for? How do you know that you've 'found' it? But if you're going to critically analyse your practice, having the ability to see what's normally in plain sight is a good skill to learn. There's an activity I do with PG students that I use to help them identify some of the things that underpin physiotherapy practice, so I thought I'd share it with you here and see if it resonates with you. (If you click to open this blogpost and scroll to the bottom, there's a comments box you can use if you have any particular thoughts you'd like to share). Step 1 - go into an image search engine, … [Read more...] about A critical thinking sandpit exercise
CPN Colloquium: Physiotherapy – bodies, professional practices & identities. Cardiff 5th July 2017
colloquium n. an informal gathering for discussion The Cardiff colloquium is an event organised and hosted by CPN members for CPN members. This informal event takes its inspiration from a proposal to organise a virtual unconference posted during the CPN's '30 Days in September' campaign. The Cardiff colloquium offers an opportunity for CPN members to come together to share experiences and ideas about researching Physiotherapy - bodies, professional practices and identities from a critical perspective. We will also be connecting (for part of the day) with the CPN Salon in Cape Town to have a critical conversation about our dreams and visions for the future of the network. Date: 5th … [Read more...] about CPN Colloquium: Physiotherapy – bodies, professional practices & identities. Cardiff 5th July 2017
“Seated physios giving advice on exercise to patients over the phone” – a follow-up
I posted a tweet about a small bit of news from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) that had caught my eye yesterday. It was about 'A telephone assessment service in Cambridgeshire [that] is helping more than half of its physiotherapy patients to self-manage their conditions' (link to the full press release here). It featured an image that I thought was interesting and just a little ironic. Here is the image. My comment on Twitter was that this was 'a thing of postmodern beauty', and both the picture and the full report raised the ire of some in the Twitter community. There were a number of things going on in this report that I think said some important things about the … [Read more...] about “Seated physios giving advice on exercise to patients over the phone” – a follow-up
Doctor knows best
Not so long ago, physiotherapists had a very close, perhaps paternalistic, relationship with the medical profession. But it seems now that our quest for professional autonomy is pushing us further away from physicians and surgeons. There are few in the profession, I think, that would dispute the obvious benefits of greater independence for physiotherapists, but this is a critical ideas blog, so I'm going to do just that. Physiotherapy has, for much of its history, been wedded to medicine. Indeed, the modern physiotherapy profession only survived and later prospered because its founders made subservience to medicine a condition of entry. Memberhip of the Society of Trained Masseuses … [Read more...] about Doctor knows best