Professional Socialisation into Physiotherapy: The Workplace Realities

Abstract

This paper illuminates the professional socialization process in a variety of physiotherapy workplaces through engagement with a range of facilities and participants (including new graduates, physiotherapy managers and experienced physiotherapists). It explores being and becoming a physiotherapist, and gives recognition to the importance of the workplace in the professional socialization process. It reports positive workplace experiences for recent graduates, and identifies links between these experiences, professional career structures, and the attrition rate from the profession. Just how well prepared are physiotherapists for the realities of the workplace? While this paper includes a theoretical model of professional socialization, the focus is on the narrative model, which is the lived experience of physiotherapists in the context of practice in the constantly changing healthcare workplace through globalisation and economic rationalization.