BOARD EXAM - mission SUCCESS

The results of our board exam was yesterday and I was a little worried about checking my email. Another of the physio student have just checked it and said that she passed so a few of the other permanent staff was waiting for me to check my email immediately. How embarrassing and awkward it would have been if I had failed. I didn't even fully read the email the first time. I just skimmed really quickly through it, hoping not to see the word fail or unsatisfactory. Luckily, I PASSED...YAY!!! At the time you don't really feel any different but after a day, it's feels pretty awesome knowing that in 3 weeks I will no longer have to say that I am a Physiotherapy student.

After seeing quite a few of my friends fail and have to repeat a year, you're never really settled until the results come out and are official. There's always that chance that they just might find something to fail you in. As objective as they try to make it, it is still quite subjective. But now it's no longer my problem.

A few more assignments to hand in and some paper work to do and stamp it as D-O-N-E, done!!!

Geraldton

After a three hour baseball quarter finals, which we lost, I had to leave immediately and head to Geraldton. It was kinda good that I had to leave immediately because I was so concerned at how late it was getting that I didn't have the mentality to get all emotional about this being my LAST baseball game here in Australia. We had a good team and if a few people hadn't walked away, I think we would've won it. I seriously believe that. We had the best hitting side at the beginning of the season and would have developed into a solid defensive team if we fielded that same team. Oh well, winning it would've been a bonus anyways.

Midway through my first week at Geraldton, my rural placement, you can definitely tell that we're not in the city anymore. The hospital facility is great with lots of financial help, but just not of man power. The entire hospital is basically run by either new grads or students. The supervisors there don't see a lot of patients so I don't really know what they do. Everyone seems to be leaving and they were saying that if they don't find new physios soon, they will have to cut down on the number or services. There are tons of classes right now and everything is free, from strapping tape to coming to see a physio.

I'm currently doing outpatients so I ses a lot of musculo patients and run various classes, pulmonary rehab, 3 different hydro classes, over 50's classes, diabetes classes, and go out to the aboriginal outpatient community clinic.

It's pretty laid back here. When I did my other musculo placement I had to do a questioning section then step out and discuss my plan before doing a physical assessment and step out again before doing the actual treatment. Now I just go in and do the entire thing. It's like I'm a real physio now, kinda weird not to have someone look over you all the time. It's good that I'm forced to manage and do everything at once but bad because I'm not learning any new ideas. What if I'm completely wrong with what I am doing?? Oh and there's such a time difference here to do everything faster. I'm use to getting 1.5hours for initial assessments and 1 hour for returnees. Now I get 40mins initial and 20 mins returnees. It's like the Fast and the Furious. It's been alright most of the time but the complex back and necks are harder.

Gotta go but will keep everyone updated...

Update

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my board exam is done and now it's all about the waiting game to find out about the results. I'm a little iffy about one of the case studies but either way I'm happy that it's done. It really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

I am going up north to Geraldton (5 hour drive) for a month to do my rural placement. Hopefully I can get internet access up there but if not, talk to you all in a month. It'll be fun and interesting working in a smaller town and putting all disciplines of physio together at one placement. Up to now we've gone on placements and only had to focus on one discipline. Now it'll be the three (neuro, musculo, and cardio) plus other areas like paeds and women's health.

One LAST placement...

Physio Board Exam, Bring It On!!!

For the first time since the Christmas break I did not have to go to prac or go to class today. It felt weird not having to be anywhere during a weekday and that's probably why I was wide awake by 7am. Tomorrow's my board exam. I feel pretty good and fairly relaxed actually. That worries me, not feeling the pressure to zone in and cram for this exam. This could only mean two things, either I'm just over it and too drained out to even bother studying OR I subconsciously know that I know my stuff. I don't feel as though I know everything but confident that I know enough, hopefully.

All I want is to pass and sound knowledgeable in my answers. Surely all these years of school must have taught me some valuable skills of BSing in front of professionals. Right?? Well regardless, I have to be happy that it will be over in exactly 24 hours from now. And if I have to do it again, it doesn't matter because it's not like anything else can be delayed anymore and there's no chance of me having to come back next year to repeat something. I think that's the main thing that is keeping me so nonchalent about this. Good or bad? I'll let you know in my next post...

Send good vibes...especially vibes of confidence

Neuro making a lasting impression

Another month has gone by and another placement successfully completed. This was the last of my compulsory placements before doing my licencing board exam next week and it was definitely the most challenging in all perspectives, mentally, physically and emotionally. It sure was a rollercoaster of a ride.

The first week was very frustrating to say the less and I found myself very pessimistic. I'm not usually like that but it was more that I had no idea what to do with my patients. We were not given a history of the patient and expected to treat them. It was also a very overwhelming environment because it was the head trauma ward. The oldest patient in there was in their early 50s, on average most were in their 30s. The stories that came with the patient were so heart breaken and to see the families come in every single day was almost too much. Many of the patients have not re-learnt how to speak yet and if they did, their speech is unclear. I now have a greater appreciation of communicating with your eyes. Oh, and the thumbs up and down sign.

By the end of the second week I was feeling comfortable and started to really enjoy the placement. Thank goodness all the physios there were extremely approachable and truly believed in working as a team. We all looked after each other, just like how all the patients' families look after each other. Never have I been on a ward where I would know all the patients there and talk to them every day. I only treated the same 4 patients everyday. It was just that kind of a ward where everyone knows your name. Or maybe because it was the only ward that had a keypad lock to prevent patients from escaping.

One of the patients on the ward has the reputation to be difficult and quite behavioural. She swears all the time and goes into those fits where she throws her food and wants to get out of the restraints. Yes we have to restrain the patients because otherwise they will all fall onto the floor. Even with restraints, some still somehow find a way to fall.

We had a ward bbq for all the staff and patients and I spent the majority of the time talking to this patient. Since then I would like to think that we had a special bond. She decided this week that I would be officially named Sabrina the Teenage Witch and everytime she saw me, she would ask "how's your cat? or where's your cat?" She absolutely cracked herself up everytime. It was pretty funny watching her enjoy this little joke.

On my last day yesterday she kept telling me to come over during her physio sessions and told me repeatedly that she liked me so I couldn't leave. That meant a lot to me because she HATES everyone and will tell you about it. Other physios were also jokingly asking that if I failed, does that mean I can stay on the ward. It was cute, in a twisted kinda way. I printed some pics of "my cat", Salem, for her as a parting gift. Hahaha...

I'm going to miss all the patients there and also the physios there. I can honestly say that I have never worked with such a knowledgeable group and all evidence based knowledge too. I just sit there sometimes and hope that I will be that knowledable someday and have the passion to keep up with the current research. This category also includes my school supervisor who was quite intense and intimidating at times. At least I know that if she passed me, I deserved to pass because she doesn't mess around.