I am currently completing my Musculoskeletal Outpatients placement. During my first week I saw a number of different patients (all of different sizes), with a number of different musculoskeletal problems.
Throughout our physiotherapy education we were constantly 'grilled' on the 'therapist's position', and how to look after our own body and therefore endure a lengthened physiotherapists career. Well, I was one of those students (as you all may have been), who thought 'Ill be fine, I'm fit and strong'.
I have learnt a valuable lesson week one of my musculoskeletal career. Throughout my first week, I have assessed and treated ankles, wrists, shoulders, and lower backs. Whilst assessing and treating these patients I didn't really pay much attention to my own position.
Monday and Tuesday I felt fine, and continued with my mentality of 'Ill be fine' when our supervisor corrected therapist position during tutorials. Well, by the end of Wednesday my mid - low back was starting to ache, something that I never usually suffer. On Thursday and Friday, I started to focus on ways I could assess (with the aid of my supervisor) and treat my patients in a more favorable therapist position. In doing this my ache disappeared and I actually felt a lot stronger whilst assessing and treating (eg: accessory mobilisations).
My lessons of the week, that I hope you can all learn from, is this: 1) Always look after your own position first 2) there is always a stronger position to assess and treat in; and 3) always take valuable advice from supervisors that are a lot smaller than you!
Any comments
Troy
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2 comments:
Live to treat another day
I had the same problem on my Musculoskeletal O/P placement before Christmas. I suffered from some discomfort early on from adopting the same “she’ll be right” attitude. I was lucky to benefit from the advice of a supervisor who was smaller than me as troy said. My supervisor had good advice from years of having to learn the most mechanically efficient treatment positions. I also needed to constantly remind myself to put the bed up. This sometimes seems tedious as you feel the bed has to go up and down for each treatment and reassessment. Alas if we want to stay in the profession, it’s essential to think of ourselves first.
I am currently on my Neuro placement at Bentley Hospital where patient handling can be extremely awkward at times with stroke patients. I have found it even more challenging to be in the best position for the safety of the patient while looking after myself. Something that takes a little practice with some real patients.
Some good advice troy, thanks for the post.
Leslie
Hi Troy,
What you've just commented is so true but on the other hand we often forget to practice that.
I remembered when I first started out working in MS outpatients, I did not take posture into real considerations. I ended up suffering from sternocostal joint pain for several days as somehow I had my upper Thx fixed in a rotated position as I was giving my patient a Thx mobilisation. It was really painful and I wasn't able to elevation my arm or breathe w/o pain. Thankfully it wasn't a major problem but it definitely did alert me to be more aware of my posture.
I also find doing core stability ex's very useful in keeping the intensity/ frequency of backaches down. Although I knew the benefits of doing core ex's, I never did got down doing it until I started working.
Hopefully you've got some use for my one-cent worth of advice!
Keep staying fit!
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