Part 2 - Criticality Last week I offered an all too brief potted history of qualitative health research (QHR), in the hope that what follows makes more sense.There are a lot of misconceptions about QHR. Hopefully these blogposts will help clarify some core principles, and inspire people to see how incredibly powerful and useful good quality QHR can be. Now you could say the first principle I want to tackle today’s is so important that it almost defines the difference between what is true qualitative health research and what is a pale imitation. And that is criticality. More than any other principle, good QHR has always been critical. It has challenged convention; held a mirror held … [Read more...] about Qualitative health research 101
Patient work
There is a lot of poor qualitative research out there. Recently I reviewed an article in which the authors had spent three years studying people's experiences of chronic pain. They didn't identify any particular philosophy guiding their analysis, they just interviewed seven people and, somehow, came up with three 'themes': that pain was unpleasant; that it was aversive (something to be avoided); and it disrupted their lives. This is a good example of bad qualitative research. And there is a simple test you can apply if ever you're in doubt. All you need to do is to ask whether the research tells you anything you didn't already know. This study took three years, but told us … [Read more...] about Patient work
2nd Critical Physiotherapy Course – What’s ‘critical’ about critical physiotherapy
Event this week Anna Rajala from the University of Brighton presents the second in our monthly Critical Physiotherapy Course events next week. Here are the details. Title: What’s “critical” about critical physiotherapy? Max Horkheimer and the idea of critical theory. Date and time: Mar 21, 20:00 GMT Location Local Time Time Zone UTC Offset Berlin (Germany - Berlin) Thursday, 21 March 2019 at 9:00:00 p.m. CET UTC+1 hour Toronto (Canada - Ontario) Thursday, 21 March 2019 at 4:00:00 p.m. EDT UTC-4 hours Athens (Greece) Thursday, 21 March 2019 at 10:00:00 p.m. EET UTC+2 hours Perth (Australia - Western Australia) Friday, 22 March 2019 at … [Read more...] about 2nd Critical Physiotherapy Course – What’s ‘critical’ about critical physiotherapy
Want more critical physiotherapy at WCPT in 2017?
It's only a few months since the last WCPT meeting in Singapore, but plans are already taking shape for the next Congress. Over the last few days, WCPT has been asking what people want in South Africa, and calling for some input from the broader physiotherapy community. So it would seem like a golden opportunity to push for more activities, forums, opportunities and speakers who can promote critical thinking and practice. There is a Survey Monkey poll that you can complete here (deadline 7th October), and WCPT has announced its Scientific Committee - the people who will decide what gets into the programme and what doesn't. The committee comprises: Professor Dina Brooks … [Read more...] about Want more critical physiotherapy at WCPT in 2017?