RESEARCH PAPER

APA Research Paper

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “Healthcare” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “Physical Therapy” and its relation with “Healthcare”. The research also analyzes many aspects of the profession and tries to explore how physical therapy as a profession stands in the field of health care.

Introduction

The field work of Physical Therapy is wide and varied. Today physical therapy is qualified to work in the three levels of care in the country: Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation, i.e. is responsible for preventing, treating and prevent abnormalities of disease, as well as expand their techniques and treatments to multiple disease states that humans can present in different areas of the body. Physiotherapy is based on scientific bases to give the patient an appropriate treatment for many pain associated diseases. The scientific means used in physical therapy are physical agents such as heat, cold, water, electricity, etc and mechanical agents such as human movement, therapeutic exercise and massage (French 2004). Physical therapists are also referred to as functional rehabilitators. Physical Therapy as a healthcare program, is contrived to assist patients better or conserve functional or routine actions. The therapy also involves the development of intensity, tractability and survival as well as acquiring the proper biomechanics or posture in order to ge spinal stability and injury prevention.

History and Development

Physical or Physio therapy might well have been in as far as the British Columbian period. The then popular Hippocrates, well known for his contribution in medicine, frequently recommended therapies of massage and warm water bath to his patients. And with the middle of 18th century, though, orthopedics also came as a separate medical discipline that was really well noted and recognized by then, and it was by this time that physical therapy took on the course of a specialized medical branch. In this period, simple machines and tools were made in order to help patients who needed medical treatment of diseases curable generally by motion of body parts, or by making them the strengthened or exercising the muscles for improvement of condition. Such machines were used to take care of everything from gout to colds. Per Henrik Ling, the man who is known as the father of Swedish gymnastics established in 1813 what was called the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics. The institute also offered such cures like exercise, muscle stimulation and massage for various diseases. Eventually, the therapists at the institute were regarded as physical therapists by 1887 and received an the National Health Board of Sweden granted them accreditation. Following this more countries followed the same suit of accreditation in physical therapy. From Great Britain to the point of the School of Physical and New Zealand and the United States, physical therapy came to be recognized as one the cherished disciplines of medicine. But during this era physiotherapy treatment mainly consisted of massage, exercise, and muscle pulling. Gradually the doctors started learning that joints could be controlled and at one ...