Interstate Nerves

Hi All,
This week I started my elective clinic in a hospital in Melbourne. I have been to Melbourne many times before and know my way around the city, but did not know the area that the hospital is in at all, nor anyone at the hospital. I know all our placements in Perth are in new settings, but at least the areas and other students and some Curtin tutors are familiar and I usually find this comforting. The first day I felt really daunted by the prospect of having to go somewhere completely new, through suburbs that I don’t know, to a hospital where I really wasn’t too sure of what people would expect from me (the hospital didn’t send any placement expectations beforehand, so I didn’t even know if the patients would be more musculo, neuro or cardiopulmonary based). I was a little scared that some of the assessment procedures and documentation would be different and that there may be different expectations of students to those in Perth. I was also a bit nervous because I knew I was representing Curtin and wanted to do that well. All of these things were on top of the normal first day of clinic nerves.
So I just took one thing at a time. I used some of the weekend (after I had celebrated finishing my cardio clinic and the end of semester) to revise some general musculo and neuro concepts and conditions. I went to sleep early the night before, then I made sure that I knew the way and left half an hour earlier than I thought I would need to get there – and ended up being 45 minutes early (but better than being late). When I got to the hospital, I made a big effort to try to remember as many faces and names as possible and was orientated to the hospital straight away, so I knew my way around. The staff are very friendly and after 3 days, I recognise most of them and know those who I work directly with, so I don’t feel at all overwhelmed by not knowing anyone. I was given a timetable on the first day and told what was expected of me – which is exactly the same as my clinics in Perth. Documentation is slightly different because here only a SOAP format is used and the IER part is sort of fitted into the A and P parts, but I am encouraged to write in the way that I am familiar with, so there was nothing to worry about there. In terms of assessment all seems to be exactly the same as well. So now I feel a bit silly to have been worried about the start of the placement and am glad that I didn’t allow stress to get the better of me which probably would have made simple things seem more difficult.
I know this post isn’t really about physio skills per se, but from this physio related experience I have learned that when faced with something I think is likely to be stressful, I just need to be as prepared as possible and then deal with the situation as it presents rather than getting really overwhelmed. I think this experience will help when it comes to my rural placement, starting work at the end of the year or when changing rotations etc
Mel