Final entry (placement #4)

Prior to beginning my placement at derby I was quite nervous because of environmental factors such as living away from home, in a town I had never been to before, with people I did not know. On reflection, these concerns seem fairly immature because I now realise that the above factors forced me out of my comfort zone and forced me to meet new people and thus contributed to the amazing experience that I had.
The main reason for me preferencing Derby for my rural placement was the opportunity to work with Aboriginal people and gain a greater understanding of their culture and of the issues they face. Although I understand that I only scraped the surface, I definitely feel I have a greater understanding of the culture and of the health issues facing Aboriginal people. My caseload was predominantly Aboriginal patients and I also worked alongside many Aboriginal colleagues and from these experiences I was able to learn many invaluable lessons.
My expectations on caseload were fairly accurate, as I saw inpatients in the morning and most of these were minor presentations, such as chest infections and mobility assessments. In the afternoon I managed an outpatient caseload which was predominantly musculoskeletal presentations. In both the inpatient and outpatient setting I encountered many paediatric clients and although initially I was very nervous with this, due to my inexperience, I became more confident as the placement progressed. I also was lucky enough to be involved in many remote community visits, including a three day trip two Fitzroy Crossing and two seperate day trips to remote indigenous communities. Although I had expected to be involved in these trips, I was not prepared for the social and environmental conditions which I experienced. These experiences were some of the highlights of my placement, both for the amazing people I met and the horrendous conditions they lived in.
As expected I was given almost complete independence on this placement and was presented with a very diverse caseload, from paediatric patients, to musculoskeletal, to amputees and finally to neurological patients. Everyday was a new experience and it was this aspect of rural physiotherapy that has increased my interest in working in such an environment.
I returned from Derby a changed person and am so grateful I was given this opportunity. I have so many stories to tell and experiences to share, however my key take home message relates to working with Aboriginies. Prior to starting the placement I had been given so many tips and so much information on how to manage Aborignial patients. However, what I learnt is that just like any other demographic you need to treat each patient as an individual and you cannot apply one method to whole demographic.