(Re)Imagining becoming a physiotherapist: a phenomenological approach

Abstract

This research is an argument for a renewed physiotherapy profession and educational preparation of its graduates. The research question – How is physiotherapy practice experienced through physiotherapy education? – considers why physiotherapy curriculum needs to transform. At the same time students’ expectations of their educational experience are shifting, communities and the healthcare workforce have changing expectations of physiotherapy graduates too. While physiotherapy curriculum has evolved, these factors challenge the profession to conceptualise ‘preparation for practice’ in new ways. Supported by six peer reviewed publications, this study draws on two educational frameworks to reimagine physiotherapy curricula: threshold concepts and ways of thinking and practising. These two frameworks act as catalysts for the profession to think in more complex ways about its educational practices. Broadly situated within a phenomenological tradition, I frame the research as transactional curriculum inquiry involving students, recent graduates and qualified physiotherapists. The researcher-researched relationship lends itself to a type of phenomenology (heuristic inquiry) in which my experiences as a researcher, physiotherapy practitioner and academic are integral to the sense making process. The research contributes fresh insight about what it means to learn and become a physiotherapist. The findings remind us to attend ‘educationally’ to important but under-represented voices in physiotherapy. As a result of this research, I raise questions about the future of the physiotherapy profession and the nature of physiotherapy curricula in universities, in particular, how students, educators and practitioners are involved in the development and advancement of the profession. To provide direction to physiotherapy practice and education, the study borrows Golde and Walker’s (2006) idea of stewardship to reframe the nature of care and caring as part of the profession’s future.