In reflecting upon my learning experience around the role of physiotherapists in healthcare innovation, I used the Driscoll's 'What Model as proposed by Golaghaie et al. (2019) to structure my learning experience into three parts: 'What?' 'So What?' and 'Now What?'.
In the first part, I described my initial learning experience as well as my feelings about it. In the second part I discussed how my learning experience led me to take action and in the last part I shared what I intend to do with the insights that I gained from my learning experience towards expanding my professional network.
What?
In Week 1 of the Developing Innovative Physiotherapy Practice module, we were asked to write down a single innovation idea for physiotherapy daily over the next 14 days leading up to the second class of the module. This was the first time that I was thinking of physiotherapy in terms of innovation. In the course of my research over the next 14 days, I noted innovative ideas in physiotherapy covering Artificial Intelligence (AI), wearables and educational animations to improve quality of healthcare. One of the interesting innovations I found was a software creation designed by an extended scope physiotherapist to help physiotherapists, doctors and nurses to avoid difficulty or delays with diagnosing musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. The software provided most likely diagnosis when patient symptoms are entered and links directly to up-to-date evidence on management (CSP 2019). That to me was an example of physiotherapists leading change that extends to broader professions and I was curious to see what the prospects for that style of innovation were for physiotherapists generally.
So what?
According to Sabus and Spake (2016), innovation in physiotherapy can be best understood as a social process situated within the culture of the physical therapist professional. In my opinion, the latter part of that definition could pose a challenge to physiotherapy innovation. As suggested by Nicholls (2016), the extent of physiotherapists' contribution to healthcare innovation is often limited by the scope of practice that exists within its own professional norms and communities of practice. Nonetheless, innovation is crucial to development and service improvement but is different from creativity (Tohidi and Jabbari 2012). According to Taylor (2017) albeit creativity and development of new ideas are a requirement for innovation, innovation challenges the boundaries that we build around ourselves and can be extended to mean the exploitation of new ideas that are adopted from other sectors (Taylor 2017). As I reflected on my learning on the subject, I understood that physiotherapists' have an undeniable role in transforming healthcare and have often been supported to take up innovation (CSP 2019). My learning experience helped me to see that the scope of innovation in physiotherapy could be broadened towards innovation models in healthcare that apply system-level adoption for person-centred care delivery across multidisciplinary professions, especially since physiotherapists rarely practice in isolation (Greenhalg et al. 2004). In applying my learning experience to my own-self, skills, attributes and creativity levels, I realised that I had work to do in order to own my spot in adding value to physiotherapy innovation.
Now what?
With my awareness of innovation and the barriers to its uptake throughout this module, I have become more prepared to accept, contribute and develop change ideas towards service-users satisfaction and the advancement of physiotherapy practice.
In synthesising the lessons from my learning experience over the course of this module, I found the TED video posted as part of learning resources for Week 2 useful for me to develop my creativity and will use the tips/insights I have gained to address areas of development I have identified within my self as follows :
• I will not be too hasty but will allow myself reasonable time to understand an idea, then I will act on it and not procrastinate. Achieving this balance is vital to following through with an original idea that can lead to innovation.
• I will be more receptive of change whereas I was initially resistant to it. This will help me recognise areas of improvement and give me the flexibility to take action on improvement methods.
• I will prioritise effectiveness of my methods over my work output. This will help me to take meaningful actions at all times in a way that leads to positive experience for patients and the multidisciplinary team.
Conclusion
Based on my learning experience on the role of physiotherapists in driving innovation, I will think outside the box and will be receptive of collaborative ideas of innovation with members of the multidisciplinary team within and outside physiotherapy. I will also put the development of my creativity to test in writing my dissertation tin the next few months.
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