prac 3 - initial entry

As always, I am feeling nervous about starting a new placement. It is almost like starting a new job everytime which is bound to make anyone anxious. I am however very excited to start fresh in a new envioronment and see how I cope with it. I think this particular placement will be the most challenging one that I have had so far. There are many reasons for this, some of which include that fact that I will be working in a tertiary hospital which will constantly be very busy. I find it difficult to work under pressure and I think this environment may add to the challenge. Also, I have always found cardiorespiratory difficult because of the concepts involved and there is also a great deal of theory to know which I now finally have to apply. This, I've learnt is not as easy as it seems. I am just hoping I can apply it in such a way that it demonstrates that I have that sound theoretical knowledge!

I am anxious about working in an acute setting as patient's are in more of a critical condition and I will have to become efficient at prioritizing which patients I see and why. Although I am sure this comes with a bit of experience too. Working in an acute setting also involves mobilizing patients with multiple attachments which I have to be mindful of during my assessments and treatments. I am slightly worried that I will forget to check certain things and remember precautions associated with the various attachments I will come across. I am concerned about my time management, I am not sure of how many patients I will be expected to see in a day but regardless of this I need to make sure I manage my time as effectively as possible which in turn will help with a lot of other aspects of the placement. Improving my tiem management is definitely one of my main goals that I would like to achieve at least by mid placement. I am sure I will have to take exercise/ pulmonary rehabilitation classes and run these independently by the end of the placement. I'll be seeing patients who have had a variety of general and cardiothoracic surgeries which will be interesting. I will be expected to have a good understanding of respiratory, analgesic and cardiovascular medications which I am a little anxious about however I have come to know a few names over previous placements so this should help me somewhat.

I am really looking forward to analysing chest xrays - this will be challenging but I am hoping to build up my confidence with interpreting these and therefore be able to explain what the results of such xrays mean for my patient/s and therefore my approach to managing them. This placement will provide a great to opportunity to practice hands-on techniques that we have learnt at university. It will be satisfying to see the benefits of these in a real clinical setting. I will probably be exposed to a lot of information about evidence-based practice in regards to the cardiorespiratory field of physiotherapy which will be very beneficial and consolidate much of what has been taught to us as well as open my eyes to new evidence. I am keen to get the chance to practice using outcome measures; to select and carry these out efficiently and appropriately as well as gain more of an understanding of what the results of these measure mean for my intervention. I have previously really enjoyed and learnt a great deal from working in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team and I will definitely be involved with this throughout this placement.

As one can see above, I think there will be a large variety of things that I will be faced with and will learn about over the course of this placement. After writing all this I am actually feeling rather excited! It will be great to be exposed to so much and hopefully really grow as a fourth-year student but also as a physiotherapist. I am really hoping a take control of my general confidence and don't let this stand in the way of me getting as much out of this placement as possible.