If you are feeling lost.....

On my current neuro prac, I bumped into my previous female supervisor who I used to work with in my third year 3 weeks Cardio prac. She graduated from Curtin University with an Honours degree about 2 years ago. I remember when we were working on oncology ward last year, she told me that she did not enjoy working as a physio at all since she graduated and she would quit her job beginning of this year. I was therefore very surprised to see her last week working in neuro inpatient ward at XXX hospital. She told me that she changed her mind after working in this ward. In fact, she loves her job at the moment. She mentioned that her current working environment is different than other working places that she experienced before. She is currently more motivated working with the patients in this ward and receives a lot of support from her colleagues/senior physios. She is also intending to specialize in this field.

I had an unpleasant experience doing my Cardio prac early this year and I am sure other students have had the same experience or worse, and I learnt from my previous supervisor’s experience that: it took her about 2 years to realize what she wants to do in her physiotherapy profession, we as students therefore should not decide our future career pathways purely based on our clinical experience that we obtained this year (of course, unless you have already found what you enjoy doing). We should continue to explore after we graduate. Another supervisor of mine once told me that it is normal to feel stress to work as a fresh graduate physio and it is therefore very important to choose a place where we can receive a lot of support from our colleagues/seniors. I hope this very small piece of information helps people who are a bit lost or confused out there. Good luck!