Rotation One - Final Entry

Again another awesome placement!

The nerves at the beginning of the placement were still present but considerably less than I imagined them to be. I found ‘going rural’ was not that different from living at home on a normal placement in Perth. I was still surrounded by supportive family and I became quite close to my second cousin's family. I made the decision to become active within the community and played a few games of beach volleyball with my relatives social team, volunteered physio/massage at the Camp Quality Cancer Golf Fund Raiser, explored the South-West, headed out with the physios and also attended Bunbury’s biggest event of the year - the Bunbury Cup Races – and picked the winning horse!

Looking back to my initial entry, my prac was slightly different to what I initially thought I would experience down in Bunbury. Although I knew Bunbury wasn’t truly ‘outback rural’, I didn’t expect the facilities (or even the town) to be so big! I did notice though, the lack of doctors, other allied health members and certain equipment available compared to my last placement. All the patient’s goals were the same as ‘big city’ patients as everyone just wants to return home! Differences I found were that some people lived far away so were unable to attend the normal rehab classes. This just meant I would just have to alter their home exercise programs and refer them to a physio closer to their hometown.

In my initial entry, I discussed how I found it hard to specifically focus my studies for this prac. This concern didn’t bother me once I arrived as I found that my last placement really prepared me for the orthopaedic part of this prac and I also found I had learnt everything and retained the knowledge I required for this prac – no real surprises anywhere!

My placement consisted of lots of hydrotherapy which I have been exposed to since 1st year and initially plenty of total hip and knee replacements. Looking back to the initial entry, I was actually hoping for lots of hips and knees on this placement so I could show off my skills I picked up from my 3rd year prac. Surprisingly when this placement seemed to fulfil my wish of being placed in the ortho ward, I became bored and found I wasn’t learning anything new so I requested to be placed in the medical ward instead for a more challenging and thus better learning experience. Luckily, the head physio was more than happy to aid me with my request.

Although I am now in 4th year, my supervisors were still kind and showed me ‘the ropes’ before ‘throwing me into the deep end’. I discussed with them that I am a kinaesthetic learner and they took that information on board when teaching me.

Before starting this placement, I was very concerned about knowing all my techniques and tests, especially for my time spent in the outpatient’s clinic. I thought that my supervisors and patients would judge me intensively and that would cause me to have performance anxiety. I found on prac that I did actually know all the techniques/tests/theories/exercises required to assess, diagnose and treat patients. My concerns were further put to rest when my fellow colleagues shared with me that they still have to refer back to books sometimes and there's nothing bad in doing that occasionally.

One of my biggest goals for this prac was to improve on my subjective and objective assessments and I know that they have improved significantly. I pushed my supervisors to criticise every assessment they saw me do and I would practice my handovers with them whenever possible. These aspects of my assessment still need improving, especially my auscultation techniques!

I had a blast and a half of fun on this placement and feel as though I've come out of it more experienced but mostly more confident. I would defiantly consider heading rural again once I graduate!