Dumbfounded!

Up until last Thursday, I was quiet certain that my uni days would be over within the week….how wrong I was! I had my final assessment with my CCT on Thursday, it didn’t go as well as I planned, to be honest I wasn’t expecting high praises, but the words “I’ve failed you” were the last thing I was expecting. As my CCT went through my assessment, I found quiet a few discrepancies, and some comments were completely wrong, but at this stage I was way too upset to be able to discuss this with her.

It only got worse from there, I approached my FCE right away, and wanted an indication of whether she was going to pass me, I had explained to her that I had PCR coming up in the next week, and that I needed to get in touch with the coordinators at uni to organize things. The FCE of course didn’t want to discuss things with me, and she said she’ll go through the assessment the next day. The final ax was left till Friday afternoon, so I had pretty much been a wreck for almost 2 days, on top of having to see all my patients.
What frustrated me, is that I was given absolutely no indication I was failing at the mid placement. My FCE said she had no concerns, and that I was doing fine 2 weeks into the prac. My CCT made no comments either regarding failing, she just told me to work on improving what I had already learned. Even at the end of the 3rd week, both supervisers had told me “your passing”, but they wanted me to set the bar higher, and keeping improving in certain areas. Not once did they indicate they were overly concerned, my FCE on the 2nd last Friday even said, “you did really well today, just keep doing this, and you’ll be fine”. For the next week, I found I had very little supervision, and I was left to be more independent to ax & rx my patients. I took this as a good sign, as most students would, when they are given more independence, and less intrusion by their supervisers. Hence my frustration and confusion when my FCE decided to fail me as well. I pointed out to my superviser she had left me to be independent, to which my superviser replied, “I noticed you weren’t coping very well”, if she really felt I was incompetent and struggling how could she leave me alone to see patients??!! She had told me that the patients were her main priority, I was finding this a bit hard to believe, considering she had left someone who she believed to be incompetent responsible for these patients. If I was really struggling, why wasn’t additional supervision provided, as is stated in the unit outline. Almost feels like they wanted me to fail. My FCE also said the only reason she outright failed me is because it was my last placement, had I been in this situation earlier in the year (like many students), she would have passed me with a ADF. I certainly drew the short straw there.

So currently I don’t know whats happening in terms of PCR/ supp placement etc. The coordinators have indicated I wont be able to sit the PCR until the deferred timeslot. I haven’t had a chance to explain to them my side of the story, and I’m really getting worried, considering PCR is only a few days away, and I’ve been stressed out and haven’t been able to concentrate on anything since last Thursday.
I feel I haven’t been given a fair go, by the supervisers on clinic, and also the uni, as my situation has been left hanging, and no-one else seems to be in a hurry to sort it out. I feel like I’m being ignored, except for all the students out there who have been very supportive and understanding.
All I want is to be able to sit the PCR this week like the rest of you, go through the same experience/emotion of finishing together with the people I’ve been with for the last 4 yrs.

Good luck to you all!

Patient confidentiality- rural

This is going to be just a short and simple blog about patient confidentitality.
After my rural prac I found out you have to be especially careful about what you say to people in town. Its so different in the city where you can say "i saw a lady with a hip replacement today"... In a small country town there's only a hand full of patients who would have had a hip replacement. So if you tell someone that, rumours start flying about who is seeing the physio- and before you know it the whole town knows it!
Thats the only negative about living in a small town is everyone knows everyone's business. And most people are pretty wary about not letting anyone else find out stuff about them (though they're not so fussed about spreading gossip about other people!).
So for people going to start work in a rural area keep this in mind :)
Also keep in mind what you tell people about yourself, because sure enough if you tell one person you are pretty much telling the whole town! hehe.
Just something for you to be careful with. I'm sure most of you figured that out by now after your rural pracs if you were in a small town. Big towns aren't too bad :)
Good luck with the PCR
Caris

Wrap up

Final blog! Just thought I'd use it to reflect on my last four weeks on 3K. Gerontology was a good prac for a last one, as I had patients with neurological, cardio/respiratory and orthopedic conditions - a real mix. I also found the prac to be pretty rewarding from the perspective that most of the patients were really appreciative of the things I was trying to do for them. Getting pretty sizeable changes in function over a short time as their health improved was good too.

I had spent alot of my time being concerned about the outcomes for all of my patients post discharge, as you have seen from my previous posts in the last couple of weeks. I'm still not sure that the health of our aging population is being managed as well as is really needed, but I have seen a lot of people working hard to provide the best care that they can. What the prac gave me that others didn't was an opportunity to develop a bit more of a holistic perspective on my patients and to think about their cases beyond the point where they ceased to be my patients. It was an eye opener that I enjoyed. One day I might even look at employment in the area.
Congrats to one and all on completeing their pracs and best of luck for the PCR
M

Rural Experience

Last blog! On a cheerful note, I would like to blog about the really positive rural experience I have had. When coming to the town (a moderate-sized town of around 1800 ppl) I came with another physio student at the same facility, for which I was really grateful as I didnt picture that it would be easy to make friends in town. I had pictured that we would spend most nights quietly at the house together, as in most facilities I have been to although people are friendly enough at work there is never really an offer to extend that to after-hours. Not so here! As of the first day here we have been busy with barbecues, dinners, pub nights, playing netball/cricket/bowls and generally being very social most nights of the week. Everybody has made a huge effort to include us and make us feel welcome (whilst subtely suggesting that more physios are needed in the country!). My recommendation for other students would be to definately go rural for a different experience and also to say 'yes' to as many offers as possible, and not to be worried about not knowing people in town as friends are made really quickly and there is heaps of fun to be had.
Best of luck for the end of prac/PCR
Mel.

Manual Handling Talk

Hi guys
Myself and the other student have been asked to give a few talks on our country prac, which is great, and one if them which we're doing tomorrow is a manual handling presentation to nursing staff. At first I felt a bit intimidated when asked as some of the nurses at the hospital have been there for at least 30 years and I felt that they would know more than I would about the topic, and may resent being 'taught' how to do what they have been doing for years. This was made more apparent when I had to ask one of the ENs to assist me with a standing hoist as I wasnt completely confident with using it. However, since first being asked I have noticed some staff doing transfers that look unsafe to the backs of both the nusring staff and the patients, such as prapping a belt around their backs/chest and literally yanking them from chair to chair. Since then I have realised that even if I dont have the experience that the staff do, because I know the theory and/or can look it up easily, and also have a greatly deeper knowledge of injury mechanisms, I still have something to offer them in terms of helping to prevent injuries. I now feel more confident going in to do the talk. Hopefully it goes well!

Dry vs Moist cough

Hey All!

During the last 3 weeks, i've been seeing a patient mainly for chest and occassional SOOB, with 2 assist. During the first 2 weeks of this prac i saw the patient with my superviser, and we did the same thing each day - try to sit the pt out of bed, if unsuccessful then ROM for UL and suctioning.( at this stage i should mention, this is a 60 yr old gentleman, (R) hemi, drowsy, fully dependent with mobility, RIB majority of the time, weak cough, and bad chest).
At the beginning of last week, we had a new physio filling in temporarily for the next month. So now we see this patient together, and few times we've seen this patient in the last week, i've felt we havent done all that we can as physios. Treatment for this patient so far has consisted of SOOB for a few minutes, before we put him back down to rest. Everytime the patient cough, it sounded very moist and in definite need of suction. I've asked/mentioned whether she feels he needs a suction, and eachtime she's like no its sounds dry. Even though i completely disagree, i've just left it, and did as the physio wanted. I know this patient has a bad chest, given his history, ausc findings and cough, so i dont know if i'm jsut getting into a routine of suctioning him, because thats what my superviser did. But at the same time i'm left to wonder if the physio is right when she feels suctioning isnt indicated, because after all she has years of experience working as respiratory physio.

So i'm just a little confused about what i should do. Because when i'm in with the patient, i feel like were not doing enough for him, and beginning to doubt my own judgement, ie. is this cough moist or dry, and at the same time i dont want to create a fuss with the physio, where i feel she might think i'm undermining her experience.

Only 1 more week...

Rev

New Conditions

Hi all, hope you're enjoying your last week of prac! I'm currently on my rural prac, and spending most of my time in the outpatients department. I am seeing a massive variety of patients, most of which have conditions I have never seen/treated before. At first this made me really nervous, becasue I couldn't follow a direct recipe about what i need to Ax and what I need to treat. After the first week or so I realised that I shouldn't be nervous just becasue "I havent seen that before". If there was something I was unsure about I look it up before the patient comes, and use the basic skills we have to problem solve what's needed in terms of Ax and Rx. Now I am really enjoying the challenge of such a variety in the patient case load, and have learnt a great deal on thsi prac, now that I have got over the anxiety of seeing something new, in case I didnt know what to do. Like I suggested in my last blog, I think all we need (well what I needed anyway) is confidence in ourselves, and confidence in the skills we have learnt. We will graduate soon and surely enough come across many challenges, and uncertainties, and what i have learnt from this prac is that all we need is confidence in our abilities.