Putting embodied knowledge into practice: a follow up study of graduates from complementary medicine training courses

将具体知识付诸实践：补充医学培训课程毕业生的跟踪研究

• 批准号: ES/J002828/1
• 负责人: Nicola Gale
• 金额: $ 10.18万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ002828%2F1
• 关键词: Putting; embodied; knowledge; into; practice

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an interesting social phenomenon for at least one, very simple, reason: one in ten people every year and one in three in their lifetimes use, and usually pay out of pocket, for CAM in the UK, when they have access to 'modern scientific' healthcare free at the point of use. Sociological studies of health and illness have traditionally focused on the practice of medical doctors to the neglect of understanding individuals' own ways of dealing with health problems within their family or community. In fact, most cases of illness (especially milder symptoms) are never seen by doctors. CAM therapists constitute a 'mid-way' between formal medical care and informal care by family or friends. Research into CAM is growing, especially studies that look at why patients use CAM therapies and the effectiveness of individual treatments. However, we still know surprisingly little about the practitioners of these types of therapy. CAM is a rapidly growing way for people to seek health advice and care, so it is important to understand more about the knowledge and skills that underpin this kind of healthcare, and how practitioners attempt to ensure the safety and quality of their practice.This study seeks to understand more about issues such as patient safety, regulation of practitioners and questions about the knowledge on which the practices are based. This will benefit the public who will have access to better information about these CAM therapies; mainstream health care practitioners who currently find it difficult to advise their patients about CAM because there is so little research in the field; and CAM professions because it will provide an independent insight into many of the key challenges that they are facing at the moment, including preparing students for practice.The Principal investigator (PI) is well placed to do this study. For her PhD, she undertook a study of students of two complementary therapies: osteopathy and homeopathy. She observed and participated in their classes over an academic year to understand their learning process. This kind of study had not been done before and the results brought new insights into the kind of knowledge about health, illness and the body that these two professions claim, in particular, the extent to which their knowledge is 'embodied'. This means that their knowledge and skills can not be represented by words in text books but are the result of an accumulation of bodily and sensory experiences, relating for example to touch or communication about emotions. This has important implications for the way that these practitioners are trained and regulated. Since then, the PI has worked closely with these professions on issues such as accrediting educational courses and patient safety in practice. She has also successfully applied for funding to run an academic conference on the regulation of these professions.For this study, the PI proposes to contact individuals who participated in the original study and have now gone into practice to find out about their careers and the ways in which their knowledge and skills have developed since graduating. Most complementary therapists work independently rather than having established career structures like doctors, nurses or midwives, so it will be interesting to find out how they ensure they have enough support and continue to develop their skills. This is also a unique opportunity because the research will be able to directly compare the values and practices articulated in training with how they are put into practice after graduation. The study will involve not only talking to practitioners about their experience, but also actually watching them in their daily working lives to see if what their say is the same as what they do, and to enable real events to spark off detailed discussions about how they deal with the realities of daily practice.

补充和替代医学(CAM)的使用是一种有趣的社会现象，至少有一个非常简单的原因：在英国，每年有十分之一的人和三分之一的人在他们的一生中使用补充和替代医学(CAM)，而且通常是自掏腰包，因为他们可以在使用时免费获得“现代科学”医疗保健。传统上，对健康和疾病的社会学研究侧重于医生的执业，而忽视了了解个人如何处理其家庭或社区内的健康问题。事实上，大多数病例(特别是较轻微的症状)从未见过医生。CAM治疗师是介于正式医疗和家人或朋友的非正式护理之间的“中间环节”。对CAM的研究正在增长，特别是关于患者为什么使用CAM疗法和个别治疗的有效性的研究。然而，令人惊讶的是，我们仍然对这些类型的治疗从业者知之甚少。CAM是人们寻求健康建议和护理的一种快速增长的方式，因此，重要的是更多地了解支撑这种医疗保健的知识和技能，以及从业者如何试图确保其执业的安全和质量。本研究试图更多地了解患者安全、从业者的监管以及关于执业所基于的知识的问题。这将使公众受益，他们将有机会获得关于这些CAM疗法的更好信息；主流医疗从业者目前发现很难向他们的患者提供关于CAM的建议，因为该领域的研究太少；以及CAM专业人员，因为它将提供对他们目前面临的许多关键挑战的独立见解，包括为学生做好实践准备。首席调查员(PI)非常适合进行这项研究。在她的博士学位中，她对两种互补疗法的学生进行了研究：骨疗和顺势疗法。她在一学年的时间里观察并参加了他们的课程，以了解他们的学习过程。这类研究以前从未做过，研究结果为这两个职业声称的关于健康、疾病和身体的知识带来了新的见解，特别是他们的知识在多大程度上得到了“体现”。这意味着他们的知识和技能不能用课本上的文字来表示，而是身体和感官经验积累的结果，例如与触摸或关于情感的交流有关。这对这些从业者的培训和监管方式具有重要影响。自那时起，私隐专员公署一直与这些专业人士紧密合作，处理教育课程的评审和病人安全等事宜。她亦已成功申请拨款，举办一个有关规管这些专业的学术会议。在这项研究中，私隐专员公署建议接触参与最初研究并现已实践的人士，以了解他们的职业，以及他们自毕业以来知识和技能的发展方式。大多数补充治疗师都是独立工作的，而不是像医生、护士或助产士那样有固定的职业结构，所以了解他们如何确保自己得到足够的支持并继续发展自己的技能将是一件有趣的事情。这也是一个独特的机会，因为研究将能够直接将培训中阐述的价值观和实践与毕业后如何付诸实践进行比较。这项研究不仅涉及与实践者谈论他们的经历，还将实际观察他们在日常工作生活中的情况，看看他们所说的与他们所做的是否相同，并使真实事件能够引发关于他们如何处理日常实践现实的详细讨论。

项目成果

Towards a learning profession? Adapting clinical governance for complementary and alternative medicine

走向学习型职业？

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Wilkinson, J;Gale, N
• 通讯作者: Gale, N

The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

• DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12182
• 发表时间: 2014-06
• 期刊: Sociology compass
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Gale N

'You cannot get enough of them!' The rise (and fall) of complementary therapies in British nursing practice in the 1980s and 1990s

“你怎么也受不够！”

• DOI: 10.1111/johs.12214
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Journal of Historical Sociology
• 影响因子: 0.5
• 作者: Gowing C

How can you make a career as a complementary therapist?

如何才能成为一名补充治疗师？

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Gale, NK