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Opie J1
1Coventry University, School of Nursing Midwifery and Health, Coventry, United Kingdom
Background: The inclusion of students with a disability is now a significant issue within physiotherapy and Higher Education. Increased numbers of physiotherapists with disabilities will ensure that the profession reflects the diversity of the wider community and provide aspirational opportunities for students with disabilities to contribute to the continued development of the profession.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the integration of students with disabilities into the physiotherapy profession within England. There were two main research questions:
What is the lived experience of physiotherapy students with a disability?
How do the policies and documents of the HCPC and CSP support the integration of students with disabilities?
Methods: This qualitative research employed a social constructionist epistemological paradigm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students with disabilities and representatives from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). The research also included a hermeneutic analysis of policies and documents from both organisations. The data was interrogated using Critical Narrative Analysis and Bourdieu´s Theory of Practice.
Results: The overall findings of the research indicate that the integration of students with a disability is affected by two main paradoxes. Firstly, the paradox of the perfect physiotherapist, which imposes a narrow corporeal standard of the 'ideal' physiotherapist against which prospective students are judged. This is supported within the professional context by a central tenet establishing physiotherapy as a profession that requires physical capability. Within this field students with a disability have to negotiate their identity throughout their course with educators, clinicians and their peers. They use a variety of capital to position themselves within the field. Nonetheless, there was a common perception amongst the students that they needed to be more determined, work harder and that they had more empathy than their non-disabled peers.
The second paradox involves the contradiction between supporting students with disabilities whilst maintaining professional standards. This paradox is evidenced in the narrow application of HCPC and CSP policies at the local level within universities, such as the application of fitness to practise policies being applied at entry rather than completion of their pre-registration course. Within clinical practice it is seen in the competing imperatives between patient safety and applying reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities.
Conclusion(s): The Bourdieusian analysis in this research has uncovered the misrecognition, illusio and symbolic violence inherent in the physiotherapy field of education. It has also demonstrated that there are structural, environmental and attitudinal barriers faced by physiotherapy students with disabilities throughout their education. The recommendations made by the participants in this project are reinforced by those from other studies on the experiences of students with disabilities, which call for a more inclusive, universal education system.
Implications: In order to integrate people with disabilities into the profession the corporeal standard needs widening. It is necessary to make this standard explicit to the physiotherapy profession, by increasing disability awareness, so that physiotherapists realise the hidden assumptions and adverse disablism within the profession that impact on students and professionals with disabilities.
Keywords: education, Disability, students
Funding acknowledgements: This work was part of my PhD studies, which were funded by Coventry University
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the integration of students with disabilities into the physiotherapy profession within England. There were two main research questions:
What is the lived experience of physiotherapy students with a disability?
How do the policies and documents of the HCPC and CSP support the integration of students with disabilities?
Methods: This qualitative research employed a social constructionist epistemological paradigm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students with disabilities and representatives from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). The research also included a hermeneutic analysis of policies and documents from both organisations. The data was interrogated using Critical Narrative Analysis and Bourdieu´s Theory of Practice.
Results: The overall findings of the research indicate that the integration of students with a disability is affected by two main paradoxes. Firstly, the paradox of the perfect physiotherapist, which imposes a narrow corporeal standard of the 'ideal' physiotherapist against which prospective students are judged. This is supported within the professional context by a central tenet establishing physiotherapy as a profession that requires physical capability. Within this field students with a disability have to negotiate their identity throughout their course with educators, clinicians and their peers. They use a variety of capital to position themselves within the field. Nonetheless, there was a common perception amongst the students that they needed to be more determined, work harder and that they had more empathy than their non-disabled peers.
The second paradox involves the contradiction between supporting students with disabilities whilst maintaining professional standards. This paradox is evidenced in the narrow application of HCPC and CSP policies at the local level within universities, such as the application of fitness to practise policies being applied at entry rather than completion of their pre-registration course. Within clinical practice it is seen in the competing imperatives between patient safety and applying reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities.
Conclusion(s): The Bourdieusian analysis in this research has uncovered the misrecognition, illusio and symbolic violence inherent in the physiotherapy field of education. It has also demonstrated that there are structural, environmental and attitudinal barriers faced by physiotherapy students with disabilities throughout their education. The recommendations made by the participants in this project are reinforced by those from other studies on the experiences of students with disabilities, which call for a more inclusive, universal education system.
Implications: In order to integrate people with disabilities into the profession the corporeal standard needs widening. It is necessary to make this standard explicit to the physiotherapy profession, by increasing disability awareness, so that physiotherapists realise the hidden assumptions and adverse disablism within the profession that impact on students and professionals with disabilities.
Keywords: education, Disability, students
Funding acknowledgements: This work was part of my PhD studies, which were funded by Coventry University
Topic: Education; Professional issues; Disability & rehabilitation
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Coventry University
Ethics committee: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Ethics number: P7763
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
