I’ve just recently come back from my rural prac, and absolutely loved it! I think a rural prac allows for a good transition between being a physio student to working out there in the real world. I found I was able to consolidate on the pracs have already had this year, and integrate everything I’ve learned. I also found that I was given a lot more freedom and independence, and actually felt like part of a team, rather than some tag a along student. Towards the end of the 3rd/ early 4th week my superviser went away, and left me in charge of the particular ward. She had already told the nurses and other persons concerned with that ward, that I’d be in charge (from physio aspect). By this stage I knew the ward quiet well, and knew what had to be done. On the first morning I was managing the ward alone, I went to have a chat to the nursing coordinator to find out if there are any new patients that required physio, or have physio referrals. On this particular ward we have blanket referrals to see patients of 3 of the Drs, the other Drs need to put a referral in if they need physio consult. Anyway the nursing coordinator said that there wasn’t anything I needed to worry about. Half way through the morning one of the physios came upto the wards to see if I was going ok, she then went to have a chat to the nursing coordinator and came back with a list of 6-7 new patients that needed to be seen. I was quiet annoyed that the coordinator had failed to mention this to me, because if the other physio had not come up to the ward, these patients would have not been seen. She probably assumed because I was a student it didn’t concern me, even though I made the effort to go ask her, and she knew I was running the ward for a few days.
Another situation that same week was one of the nurses came to chat to me about a patient, because she was being discharged back into a high-care facility and needed a mobility review. The nurses went on the give me a detailed handover about the patient, then suddenly stopped half-way through, she had read my badge noticed the word “student” on there and went on to say “sorry I’m talking to the wrong person about this, it probably doesn’t concern you”. I told her that I can deal with these things, and said I’d go see the patient.
Its quiet frustrating that regardless of the fact that your in 4th year (about to finish), some people just assume you cant take on any responsibility and aren’t doing any proper work, but just following people around. Anyway only 3 more weeks of being a student…
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Hey Rev,
I agree with you that rural placement creates so much more independence than metro pracs... it's funny, but being on my rural prac (I'm in Tom Price at the moment) I feel more laid back and less stressed even though the workload is just as full-on as in the city... I think this allows me to be way more confident with my assessments and treatments... it's funny, maybe the environment is much more relaxing- I don't know!
As for being a 4th year student and almost finished... well unfortunately the tag "student" is still going to be with us for a few more weeks yet... and then in our first year out we'll be tagged with "new grad" so we should probably get used to the fact that SOME people will prefer to speak to someone more 'senior' until we gain their trust respect yada yada
As for being labelled a student... well look at it this way, these are the last few weeks that we're allowed to ask silly questions and make mistakes without someone saying 'hang on, isn't she a physio?'
Anyway enough from me! Ez
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