Tag: Australia
My European Study Tour
In 1903 Australian early physiotherapist Josephine McCormick visited the principal physical culture institutes of Europe, in London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. She also undertook courses of study with orthopaedists Professor Adolf Lorenz of Vienna, and Dr Bernard Roth of London. Professor Lorenz was a founder of the German society of …
Australia’s First Physiotherapist
Physiotherapy emerged from nursing and hospitals in the United Kingdom, and later physical education and the military in the United States. In contrast, physiotherapy began in Australia in private practice. Migrants, predominantly British, brought their skills and knowledge in the fields of massage, therapeutic exercise and/or electrotherapy to their new …
Careers for Girls
In 1927 ‘The News’ newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia ran a weekly series of articles on their Woman’s page exploring suitable careers for girls; “a problem which at times confronts the parents of daughters”. The newspaper obtained the information for the article from an un-named “authority in the occupation”. The …
A Personal History of Dry Needling
In 1992 when I was studying a post-graduate manual therapy course at Curtin University, Perth, the educational emphasis was primarily on joints and neural tissue, with an early smattering of pain science. Whilst assessing a patient during one clinical session, no tests related to any of the education provided were …
The Machinations of McKenzie
Editors Note: Robin McKenzie is a great of physiotherapy, but as it often the case with those who create change, it comes at great expense – often to others. Former acolyte David Poulter recently shared the tumultuous story of his ten years with McKenzie as both a cathartic journey for …
How Australian Chiropractors Transformed World Physiotherapy
Osteopathy was devised in 1870s America by Dr Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) and chiropractic some twenty years later by David Daniel Palmer (1845-1913). Both utilised a structural perspective to explain and treat functional disturbances. Over the years, orthodox medicine viewed such practices with disdain. The wide variance in training, lack …
Early Years of Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland
The first course in physiotherapy at the University of Queensland commenced in 1938. Like other programs in Australia and around the world, it was established in response to the shortage of trained masseurs to treat victims of recurrent poliomyelitis epidemics. Discussions regarding the establishment of a course had begun some …
A Profession for Middle Class Women
In 1986 Stephanie Short, a physiotherapist and sociologist, published an article in the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy titled, “Physiotherapy – A feminine profession”. Short argued that the female-dominated professions in health care are not as powerful as the male-dominated medical profession and that the key factor in shaping the discrepancies …
Sister Kenny
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of her passing we will explore the life of this Australian ‘nurse’ whose work with polio victims opened the modern-day era of rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Whilst working in outback Queensland in 1909, Kenny found that several children suffered from a disease that she …
PNF in Short
Initially termed ‘proprioceptive facilitation’ by Dr Herman Kabat in the early 1940’s, physical therapist Dorothy Voss added the word ‘neuromuscular’ to give us the now familiar Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Kabat’s conceptual framework for PNF came from his experience as a neurophysiologist and physician, and the works of Sister Elizabeth …