Two articles published over the last two weeks suggest that we might be having some problems talking to our patients. The first, by Sullivan, Hebron and Vuoskoski (Sullivan, Hebron, & Vuoskoski, 2019) looks at the anxiety experienced by physiotherapists ‘selling’ their own explanations of chronic pain to patients. The therapists were trying to be patient-centred, but their efforts were undermined by ‘an underlying paternalistic wish to get patients “on board”’ (ibid). The authors attribute this anxiety to the confidence that the therapists feel in their biomedical understanding for pain, coming up against the patient’s values and beliefs that either contradict or destabilise their … [Read more...] about Having trouble talking to your patients?
Categories
This post is the first from a new blogger on the site. Cath Cruse-Drew's first post explores the use of categories in physiotherapy. There's some more information about Cath at the bottom of this post. I have often wondered why Physios, Physio educators and Physio managers align our profession with the categorisation of illness and disability. Thomas Sydenham started the diagnostic ball rolling in his ‘Observationes Medicae’ in 1676, his ‘carving nature at its joints’ was thought to be a methodically sound and scientific approach that matched the ideas of the biological sciences of the day in the classification of plants and animals. Thus, the idea of difference in medicine began. … [Read more...] about Categories
Why is ignorance so important to clinical practice?
One of the best presentations I saw at the recent In Sickness and In Health conference (link to conference programme here), was by Trudy Rudge and Amelie Perron titled 'In praise of ignorance? Towards an epistemology of “unknowing” in nursing and health care.' Rudge and Perron are both brilliant critical nursing researchers, and they were previewing some of the ideas in their upcoming book (link). Their argument was in part that although we might like the idea of certainty in our practice, certainty is not always available. More than this, certainty and risk have become hallmarks of good practice, when in fact, our ability to embrace uncertainty is a much more significant feature of … [Read more...] about Why is ignorance so important to clinical practice?
Uncertainty, luxury and creativity – a brief compendium
Last week I posted a compendium of some of the things I had found over the Christmas holiday that I thought might be interesting to people interested in all things critical. Here is another post pulling together some interesting loose strings and ephemera from the last 3 or 4 weeks. Uncertainty is a major theme for me in the pursuit of a more critically-informed physiotherapy. It seems to me that the ability to embrace uncertainty will be a vitally important capability for future practice - a point made in this post from the ever reliable and interesting Steve Wheeler. David Warlick once said 'for the first time we are preparing young people for a future we cannot clearly describe.' … [Read more...] about Uncertainty, luxury and creativity – a brief compendium
Critical Physiotherapy returns
If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, today probably marks your return to work day. For some in the South it should be holiday, so wherever you are I hope you had a relaxing and peaceful break. I stopped doing a lot of work-related things on the 19th December and am only coming back to it now in anticipation of an exciting year ahead, so apologies for the 'radio silence' over the last three weeks. It's been bliss. I stepped down as Head of Department at the turn of the year and start a six month sabbatical today, so I'll be doing a lot of blogging, reading and writing over that time (more about this in the next few days). I did, however, keep reading some of my favourite news-sites and … [Read more...] about Critical Physiotherapy returns