History101

The IPHA is building a set of resources for educators and students to use as an introduction to studying the history of physiotherapy. We are focusing on the pivotal movements that have shaped the profession and would like your input.

We have a working list of pivotal movements that anyone can contribute to. Just follow this link and add your contribution.

Principles
  • The profession’s history does not need to be studied chronologically, and a series of connected moments through time (i.e. shift from hands-on to exercise), could be more accessible.
  • We should think about historical methods, not just the events themselves; what history taking does, problems of doing history without good empirical record, using primary and secondary sources and the grey literature, for example.
  • The work should link to our History’s Greatest Physios project.

And here are some of the historical events that came from a Whole Group IPHA meeting in late April 2020:

    • Health crises that shaped Physiotherapy
      • Polio, flu, TB epidemics, other epidemics HIV, cancer, now pandemics
      • WWI, rehabilitation, WW2
      • Rise of health promotion
    • Political/strategic moments
      • Autonomy for therapists, WCPT Code of Ethics revised to remove physician referral, first contact status
      • Economics, funding 
      • Legislation, protection
      • Changing scope of practice (technology, encroachment), boundaries
      • Neoliberalism, New Public Management, external influences
      • Professional associations
      • Regulatory authorities
      • Public and private practice, funding, links to the State, changing HC funding
    • Education
      • Move into universities, not being supernumerary, leaders of schools became physiotherapists not physicians, ongoing complexity of training
      • Development of clinical academic roles, consultant positions
      • Rise of research culture, EBP 
      • Changing entry requirements (height restrictions, hand inspections, etc.)
      • Early schools of physiotherapy
      • Economics shaping PT practice
    • Cultural shifts
      • Physical culture, life reform, fitness movements
      • Leisure and pleasure, spa/sanitorium
      • Manning/womanning of practice linked to autonomy, academic roles, the leadership of women in the creation of this health practice career; feminist perspectives. 
    • Practice shifts
      • Honorary, private and public practice
      • One-to-one treatment, group sessions
      • The shifting role of touch: pro- and anti-touch, electrotherapy, manual therapy, exercise
      • Changing face of Physio departments, equipment, layout, design
      • Changing locations of practice: department, clinic, community, onlineChanges to Physio as a result of medical innovations (penicillin, advanced surgery/anaesthetics, etc.)
    • Relationships with others
      • Lay-professional shifts, expert patients, patient-centred care
      • Government and the State
      • Physio and medicine (19th& 20thcentury)
      • Remedial gymnastics
      • Behaviourism and psych
      • Interdisciplinary practice
      • Allied HCPs
      • The common genesis of manual therapy across many professions
      • Holism, complexity
    • Speculative futures
      • Future pivotal moments, futures literacy/imagining, foreseeable changes
      • Digitization, digital disruption
      • New roles: injections, prescribing, etc.

 

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