The primary purpose of conducting this qualitative exploratory study was to examine how neoliberalism has influenced and shaped the participants' understanding of GH based on their academic and/or clinical training. A secondary purpose of the study was to examine new avenues to exploring the meaning of GH based on the participants’ unique racial, cultural, geographical, and generational backgrounds.
Using the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method and related triangulation techniques, this study examined the hidden meanings of the participants’ interview transcripts. By intentionally examining the interview texts for clues on power relations, social hierarchies, and reinforcement of colonial ideologies, this study revealed the hegemonic influence that neoliberalism has on GH and PT education and practice over-all.
By closely examining how the participants used words when conveying their ideas ("talk and text"), the CDA method unearthed the extensive expression of neoliberalism in GH education and PT practice. For instance, the core neoliberal tenets of privatization, competition, and globalization suggest how neoliberalism has influenced all aspects of health and healthcare at the macro level. At the meso level, the findings suggest how these tenets have structured PT practice in areas such as the hiring competition among PT schools, the importance of treatment "fast relief", and the loss of community in favor of a more individualistic approach to care. At the micro level, the neoliberal influence on PT education highlighted how these tenets have been in direct contradiction to the participants’ lived values and/or cultural upbringing. While they remain committed to providing quality patient care, their intended actions have been constrained by the neoliberal healthcare structure where patients are expected to pay for the PT services that they receive. This neoliberal influence also distorted their perceptions around GH such that the colonial influence of western medicine remained the main driver to understanding illness, healing, and health.
The findings of the study suggests that the wider social forces that impact PT education and practice such as neoliberalism and GH should be incorporated into teaching to provide a broader understanding of their impact to PT pedagogy and practice. This will also provide students the opportunity to broaden their perspectives around health.
Given how the CDA method has uncovered the influence of neoliberalism vis-a-vis GH, the findings of the study have huge implications to challenging PT curricula that often focus on biomedical reductionism. By juxtaposing GH and neoliberalism, the study hopes to contribute to the health equity discourse by uncovering how power, privilege, and oppression are reproduced within the profession.
global health
physical therapy
