Reflective Practice is defined as ‘the process whereby an individual thinks analytically about anything relating to their professional practice with the intention of gaining insight and using the lessons learned to maintain good practice or make improvements where possible' (Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, 2008). As scientific professionals, it aims to make physiotherapists more aware of our own professional knowledge and action by ‘challenging assumptions of everyday practice and critically evaluating practitioners’ own responses to practice situations’.
Recently we created a Whatsapp group for physiotherapists which has proven a useful learning and knowledge sharing resource for members. One of the things that I came across regularly was how twitter is being used for knowledge sharing and there are some Twitter feeds that come up regularly in discussions about pain education and physiotherapy.
Whilst lot of athletes and coaches swear by foam rolling as a means of reducing DOMS, improving flexibility and strength, we explore the results of a meta-analysis and systematic review to understand what the research says about the effectiveness of foam rolling.
I have previously collated a list of top 10 books for musculoskeletal physiotherapists that has proven to be quite a hit. You can find that list HERE. So I thought it is probably a good idea to compile another list of books focussed on neurological physiotherapy and neuro-rehab.
I get quite a lot of emails from international students about which universities are the best for physiotherapy education in United Kingdom (despite Brexit and all that it entails!!). So here is the list of Universities which have been ranked as the top 10 Universities offering physiotherapy degree in Physiotherapy.
Concussion is among the most commonly occurring sport and recreation related injuries in today's society. The majority of individuals recover in the initial time period following a concussion (typically between 7-10 days). However, in 20–30% of cases symptoms persist beyond the initial weeks following injury. Schneider (2019) have recently published a Masterclass is to outline evidence informed rehabilitation, including physiotherapy specific techniques, that may be of benefit individuals following concussion.
Reading and continued development is a key element of any professional's practice. The day we stop learning, that is the day we stop growing. And what happens if we don't grow? We stagnate. So today I am sharing with you a list of books which form the essential reading list for musculosksletal physiotherapists (UPDATED 2019)
Every year the National Autistic Society (NAS) encourages the general public to take part in activities during the seven days of World Autism Awareness Week in order to raise money and awareness with campaigns like Too Much Information. Autism Awareness Day is marked on April 2 every year, World Autism Awareness Week will be from March 26 to April 2 in 2018.
In order to celebrate the Autism Awareness Week and to encourage awareness, we present 20 facts about autism.
Whiplash can be defined as “an acceleration–deceleration mechanism of energy transfer to the neck. It may result from rear-end or side-impact motor vehicle collisions, but can also occur during diving or other mishaps. The impact may result in bony or soft-tissue injuries (whiplash-injury), which in turn may lead to a variety of clinical manifestations called Whiplash-Associated Disorders”
While objective clinical testing is important and is given a lot of focus within clincal training programs, subjective assessment and history taking is one of the key aspects of the clinical reasoning process. A detailed subjective assessment will help a physiotherapist form provisional hypotheses as to the potential causes of the patient's presentation and therefore form the basis of the subsequent objective assessment.
Every runner considers injuries to be their nemesis. These can vary from minor niggles to fractures and can side line runners from their practice, performance and passion for days, weeks or sometimes even months leading to them requiring rehabilitation and graded return to running.
Within musculoskeletal physiotherapy, adherence to exercise programs is a challenge and generally adherence has been reported to be in the range of 50% and can be even lower for unsupervised home exercise programs. If you don't take your medicine, its likely not to have its desired effect. Similarly, if you do not adhere to the prescribed exercise program, it is likely that effect of exercise program will be sub-optimal.
It has been a long standing myth amongst non-runners that running (specially long distance running e.g. marathons) can cause arthritis and damage the knees. Infact one of my friends who is an ergonomist and occupational therapist also said the same thing to me. She is an ardent cyclist and swears that pounding the knees on the roads is not her idea of exercise as its going to have a significant impact on her knees and leave her with early onset of osteoarthritis in the knee. She has even encouraged me to consider giving up running and take up cycling as an exercise instead as it is potentially less strenuous for the knees.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease - disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain, peripheral arterial disease – disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs, rheumatic heart disease – damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria, congenital heart disease - malformations of heart structure existing at birth deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism – blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs.
Physioguru: The One Stop Physiotherapy Resource