GLOBAL VIEW

18 physiotherapy.asn.au

The Age of Enlightenment represents the period from 1680 to 1820 in Europe when reason and knowledge fl ourished, and people moved from superstition to knowledge based on fact and rational thought. This transformative period of human evolution provides the inspiration for the British Museum’s Enlightenment

Gallery—a permanent exhibition that tries to recreate what the fi rst visitors to the museum would have experienced. Of the thousands of the artifacts on show, many are housed in beautiful cases and book shelves and collectors of the time used such furniture to display their various collections, hence the term ‘a cabinet of curiosities’.

WCPT Vice President, Dr Emma Stokes, provides an article drawing on the presentation that she delivered as part of the Founders’ lecture at last year’s Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) national conference.

However, as I researched and prepared the content of the lecture, it emerged that a cabinet of curiosities was also a metaphorical room—a place that provided retreat for contemplation. Hence the concept of a cabinet of curiosities allowed for the construction of a number of frameworks. This included my own cabinet of curiosities as I researched the lecture and the notion that conferences such as PhysioUK 2013 and APA New Moves are also cabinets of curiosities. Attending these events takes us away from the particularities of our day-to-day lives, both work and personal. We fi nd ourselves with opportunities for formal learning and informal mingling and

CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

engaging. We gather ideas from lectures, workshops, seminars, and conversations over coffee and lunch. We create intellectual and professional connections and gather people into our networks. We walk through the trade exhibitions. And that is and becomes our cabinet of curiosities. When we move away from the quotidian, we can create a space for experiencing and learning new knowledge and for reflecting on how that changes both our practice and our individual and professional selves.

For example, the World Parkinson’s Congress (WPC 2013) was a unique congress that brought together people living with Parkinson’s disease, healthcare professionals and researchers. One unique feature of the congress was it’s ‘rejuvenation room’. What I learned from writing the lecture was the importance of reflection and how quiet spaces are often missing amidst the busyness of conferences. Conferences are only cabinets of curiosity if we are empowered to reflect on what we have learned and we take the time to, as well as the responsibility for, reflective practice.

SHAPING PHYSIOTHERAPY THROUGH OPPORTUNITYOpportunity has and will continue to shape physiotherapy; it is driven by individuals and organisations and it is important now more than ever to be alert to and seize opportunities.

The physiotherapy profession has many examples of opportunity that can be viewed as arising from times of trouble—war and polio shaped the key developments in rehabilitation and provided opportunities for the development and consolidation of the profession. APA Honoured Member Prue Galley eloquently describes the professional context that led her to articulate for a change to our profession’s ethical stance that required our patients to obtain a third-party referral (Holdsworth 2011). She describes the environment as ‘stultifying’ and being ‘stuck because we didn’t have full autonomy’. Her action at a time of challenge was not to accept the status quo but to work towards change and to leverage the eventual support of the APA to change the position of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy. One person’s vision and action culminated in a change in our practice globally.

For the lecture, I gathered many inspirational stories of physiotherapists who were seizing opportunities to shape the profession today. I drew on their experiences, as well as my own research, to present five suggestions to the listening audience. They included:

• find your passion

• make a space for creativity

• rename failure

• be part of a bigger conversation

• take a chance rather than make a plan.

Becoming an expert has been linked to 10 000 hours of practice. If you love what you do, putting in extra effort does not seem like hard work. If you can find your ‘flow’, you are combining high skill and high challenge. I know many physiotherapists who find their flow every day. They are highly skilled specialist physiotherapists who have spent many hours practising, learning and developing their area of practice. Many of these physiotherapists are involved in the leadership of their area of practice as volunteers. For early career physiotherapists, who are developing

professionally, many find their passion within the workplace but others may not and this is where seeking opportunities to connect with your passion is very important. My advice has been find your opportunities through volunteering. If physiotherapy is not your passion, stay connected with whatever is, whether that is music, drama, sport or family.

Make space for creativity. It is well recognised that many significant discoveries are made when, in the final stages, the inventor moves away from day-to-day activities. I refer to the stunning Salk Institute—designed by Louis Kahn and informed with very specific requirements from the scientist who discovered the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk. Salk required offices for the principal investigators to be located away from the laboratories, as well as the restrooms, thus forcing staff to leave the laboratories. This was inspired by his experience of making the final discovery for the vaccine having left the United States to travel to Italy. Attending conferences provides the ideal opportunity to step away from the quotidian in the same way that cabinets of curiosities provide a space to reflect and be inspired with new ideas, new interpretations and innovations.

‘Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’

This quote from Samuel Beckett helps to reframe failure. All of the physiotherapists who I have spoken with have talked about learning from when their plans for new technologies and services don’t go according to plan. Working in an academic institution, there are frequent failures—whether that is having papers not accepted for publication in a particular journal or having grant applications declined. Creating strategies to view this positively is a challenge but the most successful researchers revise and resubmit and, consequently, their achievements grow. Applying a newly

InMotion June 2014 19

20 physiotherapy.asn.au

Emma Stokes remembers her shock at being invited to deliver the traditional Founders’ lecture at last year’s annual conference for the CSP.

‘I was simultaneously stunned and immensely honoured,’ she says, recalling the written invitation, which takes pride of place in her offi ce. ‘I remember thinking that

there would never be an invitation like this again.’

With only one physiotherapist delivering the speech since 1999, the historic lecture (which was inaugurated in 1914) had come to transcend the particulars of the profession and represent broader, and more symbolic, themes and objectives.

Set to be the fi rst Irish physiotherapist to deliver the address, the Trinity College associate professor was further burdened with a sense of responsibility upon referencing the list of names that had preceded her. This included legendary Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave, English explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and political heavyweight Alastair Campbell among other house-hold British names.

In the lead up to what she describes as the most important lecture of her professional life to date, Emma was given 10 months to construct the address, with direction only coming in the form of a central topic—opportunity and innovation— and the request that ‘people leave the lecture inspired’.

‘It was this freedom combined with the responsibility that created a unique opportunity for me from a professional development perspective,’ she says, remembering her angst as the event drew nearer. ‘By March 2013, the pressure was on for a title. I needed something that would draw people in, make them interested in my lecture, and give me the fl exibility to explore the broad themes of leadership, innovation, inspiration, development and opportunity—the basis of my lecture.’

Ultimately, this trigger of inspiration came

during a trip to London. When visiting the

British Museum, which she describes as

being one of her favourite places, Emma was

moved by the Enlightenment Gallery

—the exhibition commemorating the age

of reason and learning that fl ourished

across Europe and America from the 17th

century. With such a visual and historic

representation to draw on and unite her core

themes, Emma encouraged attendees to

fi nd their passion, make space for creativity,

rename failure, add to an overarching

conversation, and perhaps most notably,

take a chance.

When InMotion spoke to former CSP chief

executive, Phil Gray, at last year’s APA

national conference, he warmly recalled

Emma’s address, which had taken place the

previous week.

‘She gave a brilliant lecture … an absolute

tour de force,’ he said. ‘It focused on the way

in which the profession had developed from

its earliest days and how it had progressed

since then and where we can look to for the

future.

‘It literally was past, present and future.’

THE STORY OF A LECTURE

learned treatment strategy or a new idea for service delivery may fail initially, and stopping at that point may often seem like the easy solution, but the world’s greatest entrepreneurs view failure simply as a way of making the next version of the idea better.

Being part of the global physiotherapy community through my work with the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists and the WCPT has provided me with so many incredible opportunities for learning about physiotherapy around the world. Attending my fi rst WCPT Congress in Yokohama in 1999, a physiotherapy manager from Ireland said to me that ‘once you attend one WCPT congress, you will never miss another one.’ She was right. Being part of a bigger conversation might mean international physiotherapy or it might be participating in interdisciplinary groups and organisations. It doesn’t matter; we should expose ourselves to different perspectives and different creative ideas. Australia hosted the WCPT Congress on two occasions—Melbourne in 1967 and Sydney in 1987. WCPT congresses draw physiotherapists from around the world together—the ultimate global conversation and in May 2015 it will take place in Singapore. Australian physiotherapy features in the 25 focused symposia announced in February 2014—23 physiotherapy presenters from the total of 107 and featuring in 17 of the 25 symposia. With the call for abstracts now open, it is a wonderful opportunity and focal meeting point for the global physiotherapy community.

Finally, the notion of taking a chance rather than making a plan comes from hearing of experiences where the story begins with ‘ I never planned to work in …’ The professional journeys we end up following can be infl uenced at key moments by inspirational patients, personal circumstances, challenges in our professional lives or opportunities that just

come at the ‘wrong’ time. This could be as simple as taking a course that would not be immediately part of your professional development plan or accepting an invitation to be part of a project or an activity even if the time is not perfect or part of your plan. You never know how infl uential it might be.

Being invited to deliver the Founders’ lecture has been enormously infl uential in my professional life. I have had the chance to develop an idea, continue to talk to inspirational physiotherapists and others who have seized opportunities and shaped healthcare. My cabinet of curiosities is growing as I read more, gather stories and take invitations to continue the conversation, such as writing this article. We are all obliged to engage with continuing professional development but what we put into our contemporary cabinet of curiosities is our choice.

GLOBAL VIEW