Many years ago, I was one of the first of the new student reps to attend the CSP’s annual Congress. Back then Billy Bragg was railing against the Miner’s Strike and the IR department of the CSP reigned supreme. It became obvious pretty quickly that people took Congress really seriously. The first motion I remember being discussed was a levy on member’s fees to raise funds for Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters. Sadly the motion went no further after being referred to Council, where it ended up disappearing like gold in the San Juan rivershed. Not long after the Congress I attended an Association for Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care meeting and was dismayed to hear the keynote … [Read more...] about New: Activism
Doomed to repeat
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
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
Are we gatekeepers, or locksmiths?
This post originally appeared as a reflection at usr/space, after reading David's post on the profession as a gated community. It got me thinking about how the metaphors we use inform our thinking and practice. David Nicholls 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?
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
Physiotherapist non-medical prescribing: A policy of transforming community services, service integration and the primacy of orthopaedic surgery
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.) Physiotherapist non-medical prescribing: A policy of transforming community services, service integration and the primacy of orthopaedic surgery By Nicky Wilson, Pope, C. Roberts, L. and Crouch, R. Purpose & Background The UK non-medical prescribing policy programme is a key component of workforce modernisation and reconfiguration, seen as essential to meet rising healthcare demands. Rights to prescribe medicines now extend to a … [Read more...] about Physiotherapist non-medical prescribing: A policy of transforming community services, service integration and the primacy of orthopaedic surgery
Does curing dominate caring in professional training of 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.) Does curing dominate caring in professional training of physiotherapy students? By Tone Dahl-Michelsen Physiotherapy is a profession characterized by emphasizing cure at the cost of care. Lately there has been a call for the profession to increase the focus on caring to be more in step with the demands of the 21st century health care. This implies a concern that the physiotherapy profession continues to remain too strongly focused on … [Read more...] about Does curing dominate caring in professional training of physiotherapy students?