Work Experience, Injury Clear Ups & 2013 Therapy Expo - 19th September 2013

Work Experience, Injury Free (For Once) & 2013's Therapy Expo

Since my last post, quite a lot has happened, hence the length of time since last posting!  As I have previously mentioned, Universities are insistent on their students having work experience or at least some experience in the Physio industry/field before they even take them on their courses, this is due to the amount of people who actually have little or no idea of what Physiotherapy can consist of.  If you ask a lot of people, they think that Physiotherapy mainly involves looking at people with a bad back or a twisted ankle or in some cases, sitting in the dugout at a football match, running on to be greeted by somebody who hasn't even really been injured and then spraying them with "magic spray" to let them resume play, this is far from what being a Physiotherapist consists of, as I know too well myself.

I completed two placements over the past month or so, one based at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and the other at the Royal Preston Hospital.  I met a vast amount of people during this time, including inpatients, outpatients, other Physio's, worked with doctors, nurses and a variety of medical staff, which I thoroughly enjoyed I have to say.  People often asked me if I knew what being a Physio consisted of, especially a hospital/NHS based one and what my plans were in terms of career progression, career goals etc.  Many thought I would be put off by the experience but it in fact had the opposite effect on me, it has made me want to work that little bit harder to achieve my goal of becoming a qualified Physiotherapist.

As well as completing the two mentioned placements, I attended the Therapy Expo in Manchester on September 13th & 14th.  This was something that was totally new to me, I'd never been to an exhibition before never mind a therapist related one.  My main aim was to attend for various CPD sessions in order to increase my knowledge on a variety of subject areas, in this case it was mainly taping sessions, both Kinesiology and traditional taping and in some, a mix of both.  As I have found myself using taping for a variety of reasons over the past 7/8 months, I thought this would be extremely useful to myself and obviously in the future in terms of patient care, and, I was correct, as I learnt a lot over the 2 days at the Therapy Expo.  I made various contacts too, which I hope will bode well for the future and purchased a few things at discounted prices, which always helps, especially when you're a student!

My First, Of What I Suspect Will Be Many, Textbooks!

In between all the above mentioned, I also attended a workshop/seminar session on Heart Failure Management which was held by the ELHT at the Royal Blackburn Hospital as well as my first MS Society meeting too.  Some of you may be wondering why I am doing all this when I'm not even a Physio student as of yet?  But as I may have mentioned in previous posts, Salford University in particular, have a really high number of applications for their 41 places.  In fact, they have over 700, so in order to make myself stand out, I believe I have to already begin acting as if I am a fully qualified Physiotherapist, never mind a Biosciences student with hopes of becoming a student Physiotherapist!

I have also started my Biosciences course, 2 weeks already completed and things are progressing slowly but surely, although like the College stated, it is a lot of information to take in, in a short space of time, so I expect  the high work load to begin in the next week or so.  I also have plans to attend the next MS Society meeting on October 15th and also another ELHT members workshop on Dementia, sometime in October too, yet to be confirmed.

Finally, on a personal level, I am currently (touch wood), injury free as my shin splint pain has moved on and my knee is currently in a comfortable condition.  I have yet to get back into my running routine again as I was cautious after losing the shin splint pain but I did run just over 4 miles on various occasions, albeit it on grass, and have since played the first 11 a side game of the season, completing 90 minutes, so, onwards and upwards from here!

Special mention to Rob Madden & Patrick Harding for hosting the majority of the workshops/seminars I attended at the Therapy Expo and for "hiring" me as their taping model for the majority of the demo's!

Thanks for reading :)