Hi Everyone!
During P1 I was on my rural placement at a regional hospital. Being a rather small hospital (compared to any of the metro hospitals), the one orthopaedic surgeon based at the hospital had his office just down the hall from the ward and would regularly check in on his patients. Given that we the physiotherapists had a blanket referral to see all of his patients post-op, I quickly became very familiar to the surgeon.
Having seen that he would be performing 2 THRs in the following week, I was tossing up whether or not I should ask to go and watch one. In the end I decided to go for it and asked my supervising physio whether she thought it would be ok and she agreed it would be a fantastic opportunity. So the next day I approached him and asked, and he was more than happy for me to watch.
At first, I felt a bit like a burden/annoyance to the surgical nurses and assistants and once in the operating theatre I kept back so that I was not in anyone's way. Once the surgery begun, the surgeon told me to come and stand closer so I could see exactly what he was doing- he arranged for me to stand on a small step just over his shoulder for the entire procedure and actually talked me through it as he went. This was a fantastic opportunity for me and as was pointed out in a previous post- actually viewing what goes on gives a much greater understanding and empathy of patient pain levels post-op.
It just goes to show that if an opportunity that you feel would assist your learning comes up, it is always better to speak up and ask rather than let it pass by because you are worried you will be a burden or nuisance- more often than not, the staff are more than happy to help. After all, when on prac, we are not employees getting paid for our services- we are in fact paying for the opportunity to learn and often it is easy to forget that. It always feels good to be able to actually assist the physios and lighten their workload somewhat during placements, but this shouldn't have to be at the expense of missing learning opportunities.
1 comment:
I agree 100% I have just had the same issue with my supervisor, feeling like i had no time to spend learning new skills and about different aspects of the services that the centre where I am provides (ie walking aid prescription, AFO casting, spinal clinics etc). I asked and i received, it's so important to not get bogged down trying to help the actual physios and take time to further our own learning, it's what we are there for after all!
Post a Comment