Initial entry (fourth year neuro)

My first placement for fourth year is neurological inpatients at Royal Perth Hospital, (Shenton Park campus). I will be based at the Well-Tel program, which despite my best efforts I have been able to find very little information about. The only information I have been able to collect on the Well-Tel program is that it predominantly caters for patients post stroke but also for other neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis and Guillane-Barre Syndrome. As Shenton Park is a specialist rehabilitation facility I expect treatments to be relatively long, intense, one-on-one sessions aimed at optimising patient’s independence levels. I predict treatment sessions to largely ‘hands on’ and thus quite physically challenging i.e. repetitive assistance with transfers. I expect to perform regular neurological assessments using specific outcome measures such as Tardieu and Motor Assessment Scales. I also expect to regularly assess more general abilities such as balance and gait.

In the first week I think I will be predominantly shadowing my supervisor and providing assistance where needed so that by the beginning of the second week I will have an independent case load and can then gradually become more independent as the placement continues. Although I expect to be working independently by the second week I feel confident that the environment will extremely supportive and I will be encouraged to seek assistance when required.

For the first week I perceive my role at Shenton Park to be somewhat like an assistant to my supervisor, however as the placement continues I feel my role will be to help balance the case load by assessing and treating patients independently.

I am extremely anxious prior to beginning this placement. Throughout the course of this degree I have consistently found neurological physiotherapy to be the most challenging, both in terms of theory and practical skills. Despite these difficulties I also find neurological physiotherapy the most interesting and potentially rewarding of all the sub-disciplines within physiotherapy. It is because of this, the ‘fear of failure’, which I have experienced prior to both previous placements, is much greater. It is not literally a fear of failing the placement, although that is definitely a concern, but rather the embarrassment of not fulfilling my supervisor’s expectations. Another reason for my anxiety is the lack of background information I have on the Well-Tel program. I have no clinical mix to get an idea of the pathologies I will be seeing or the assessment and treatment approaches I will be practicing and thus I feel somewhat underprepared. I just need to keep reminding myself that this is an opportunity that I may never have again and I should take away as much as I can from the placement.