I am currently on my gerontology prac and had my 1st day of Curtin CLinical Tutor being present. Whilst performing timed balance tests, I was noted that if it is obvious that a patient is capable of achieving up to 2 mins of static balance, it wasnt necessary to time for the full 2 mins, as this may take a long time to complete the assessments.
Later on in the day I was being observed by the facility tutor, and did not time the patient in static standing for the full time period and was told that there was no point doing the test if it wasnt standardised each time it was done, and that I needed to time the full length of time.
I actually agreed with her, however I did not mention to her that the other clinical tutor had told me otherwise.
Perhaps this was not a wise thing, however, I did not want to seem as though I was contradicting her, especially because I actually agreed with her. So in that sense I think I did the right thing by not bringing up what the other supervisor said.
The next time the Curtin clinical tutor is present however, perhaps it would be a good idea to let her know what the facility tutor suggested about consistency, to avoid further problems.
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I had the same experiences during most of my placements when I had two different supervisors and being a physio student, I did the same thing as you. But there was one occasion when my clinical supervisor was upset with my treatment approach and I had to tell her that it was the clinical tutor who told me to do so.... she then approached the clinical tutor, and both of them came to me and tried to give me a consistent "answer". It was not a very pleasant experience and I learnt that it really depends on the situation for me to discuss their different opinions or not in the future.
I have had similair experiences. The standardisation of specific objective tools is quite importnat, and this has been drummed into me by a number of supervisors. However, the standard 2 minutes static standing provided a good comparison of how the patient is doing compared both to previous trials and other patients. If you choose to standardise a treatment of your own (IE 1 min standing test), the results will not be comparable to two minute standing tests, but if you choose to assess the same patients the same way each time, it will be relevant to that patinet. (that may be stating the obvious).
I have in his year stated that certain physios opinions differ to each other. In those cases, I was told that I would need to be able to justify my decision, not just take the advice of other physiotherapists. I found that this was a good way to develop my clinicl reasoning and independance. In some cases I have been told that as long as I can justify it, almost any treatment is indicated (within raeson).
As a result, if I felt I was in asituation where I was stuck between the differing opinions of two therapists, I would tsate as much and try to work out which makes more sense to me.
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