Roel van Oorsouw - 30 DoS - Day 20

Tell us a little about your current work and study, especially how you think and practice critically.

My name is Roel van Oorsouw. I am a physical therapist working in a University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, typically working with critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). Two years ago, I started a PhD trajectory studying patient experiences during ICU stay and ICU recovery, mainly using phenomenology research designs. I am convinced that phenomenology has a lot to offer for physical therapy. Reading this kind of studies has brought me an incredible amount of understanding to the, often confusing, clinical context. Alongside with the technical and systematic aspects of the therapy that I provide, I am now more conscious about what is happening in the patients’ lifeworld. Reading phenomenology also raised my interest in philosophy, opening up a whole new world of ideas. These ideas make me think critically about the way health care is organized. What is good care? What is good physical therapy? When do I need to step forward, and when is it better to do nothing? Fundamental questions like these are now more and more discussed in our research group and in our physical therapy team.

What is it about critical physiotherapy that appeals to you?

Since my physical therapy education, I wonder what makes a good physical therapist. As a starting professional, I was keen to progress my knowledge and skills. However, I always felt that there was more to it, something that could not easily be named. It took me quite some time to find the sources describing and naming these aspects. I was very pleased when I found out that international colleagues were already trying to integrate knowledge from other scientific areas like sociology, philosophy and history for example. I am really happy that I found these colleagues and forums, and it seems obvious to me that these aspects are crucial for our profession to further develop.

What do you bring to the CPN?

This blog is my first contribution to the CPN. Until now, I have mainly consumed the content you share. This helped me a lot in broadening my interest scope and developing my ideas about physical therapy. The last couple of years I have built up experience in studying lived experiences. I have something to bring when it comes to qualitative research. Specifically the phenomenology of embodiment and the philosophy of mind have my interest. In the future I will certainly try to engage more in activities from the network.

How would you like to see the critical physiotherapy community develop over the next few years?

In the literature often two realms are separated, they have been given a lot of different names. I think that the objective, systematic, quantitative, technical, predictable, positivistic aspects of our profession are really strong and very much emphasized and rewarded. They tend to oppress (or colonize?) the subjective, qualitative, existential, contextual, interpretational, meaningful, human aspects of the profession. This second realm is softer, more gentle, but in my experience is not less vital for the provision of good physical therapy care. I hope that the CPN can advocate these aspects and be a voice emphasizing and nourishing these. In my opinion, the CPN is important in uniting physical therapists sharing ideas and create a voice as strong as possible.

How would you like to see the broader physiotherapy profession develop?

I hope that physical therapy, and society as a whole, will develop in the direction where human aspects will be much more appreciated. In the Netherlands, the negative aspects of neoliberalism, including the emphasis on efficiency and productivity, are debated more and more. I hope that this race to the bottom, and to the destruction of the earth, will end. We should not allow physical therapy to be reduced to a mechanical profession solely valuing quantitative outcomes because then, though unconsciously, we agree to a reductionist view on life.