Finishing my paediatric placement, I found that paediatric physiotherapy despite being given a focus over the years of study, does not receive the same amount of teaching time or content as the other streams of physiotherapy (Musculo, cardio etc). Whilst on my paediatric placement I found that the education I have received has made me competent, but it is still extremely limited in the face of actual patient loads. There were conditions that I saw that admittedly are quite rare, yet I had not even heard them mentioned in the context of physiotherapy, and as a result I have spent time looking into the conditions and appropriate treatment or management techniques. It was not expected of me to be aware of these conditions, and the placement provided me with the resources that they had available in order to gain a better understanding. However the facility I was attending had fantastic resources which benefitted me greatly. I was lucky enough to be on placement while a general meeting for all of the departments physiotherapist's was being held, and as a result I attended. The meeting involved information about continuing ed being held independently, as well as some workshops such as basic Makaton (a sign language). In addition to this, equipment was discussed as well as treatment techniques such as serial casting and dynamic taping. This proved to be a great opportunity for me, as I could practice the techniques and also receive input from the physiotherapists who had applied these techniques in the past. Some of the physiotherapists were new grads on their first year out, and their opinions reinforced mine. They both had felt competent when leaving uni, but due to the education provided at the facility they believed they were much more effective in treating patients, and a lot more comfortable with their knowledge base.
While all of the placements I have been on have provided some sort of education program, I believe that my Paediatric and ICU placement have provided the most input. Admittedly I felt less confident before both of these placements, which may have been a factor in my appreciation of the education. These placements both helped me to appreciate the importance of utilising the facilities at any new work environment, and also to keep an active interest in professional development and education. Given that some of the staff I have met have worked in the same Field since graduation, the content they were taught at uni would be vastly different to what is current literature now.
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I have to agree with this. Although we cover a lot of theory during our degree, there is a lot that we will have to learn on the job. And I presume that there will be limited opportunities to learn at times unless, structured ongoing professional development and education is provided by the facility, whether this is via written format or in a class setting. There will be alot of material that we did cover during our degree which we will need refreshment in also, and although we need to have the drive to research such topics, it will always be great to have information provided within the workplace, to keep our knowledge base up to date, and to make work more interesting and rewarding in general.
Hi, I also had a similar experience during my paediatric placement. Although we learnt a couple of conditions at uni and different ways of treating the impairments, I felt that I did not use a great amount of that. Most of the techniques i used, were taught by the supervisors (eg: serial casting). There were also many conditions that i did not know about previously. (eg: intoeing). From the extra study I did and learning from my supervisors, I felt that I was more competent in treating the patient's presenting conditions.
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