Recently at ThreeSpires Physiotherapy we had some student physiotherapists visit to have a look at what we do and how our home visit physiotherapy service works. Each student came out with me for a full day of visits and physiotherapy and attended patients in Staffordshire, Lichfield, Walsall and Rugeley to name but a few of the places we visited. I have been meaning to discuss how this went for a while but as ever have been busy as a physio seeing patients and also trying to manage the overall physiotherapy practice. So, as I have a little bit of spare time now I thought it would be an opportune moment to discuss how things went and what I learnt.

I know the last part sounds strange – after all wouldn’t it be the student physios that were learning but having a student out with me and chatting through things and hearing their perspective on physiotherapy is always a great learning experience for myself. Having to talk through in clear steps a patient’s condition and the reasoning behind what you are doing as a physiotherapist always makes me realise how much we do for our patients. Also having a different perspective on what I am doing with patients is again enormously helpful and the questions that student physiotherapists come up with are very different to those that an experienced physio would think of plus student physios have often been much more exposed to the latest thinking and research in the world of physiotherapy.

So… how did things go? Well firstly the students (all from Birmingham City University) were all brilliant, they arrived on time, were well presented, professional and a credit to the profession. We saw a wide range of patients that day from neurological to musculoskeletal problems which hopefully gave them a broad look at what a physio does. We drove a lot on each of the days, visiting patients in Lichfield, Rugeley, Armitage and Walsall and talked through each of the patients that we saw. Personally for me as a physiotherapist I found it fascinating to talk through each patient’s condition and what we were doing and it made me realise the depth and breadth of knowledge that you gain as a physiotherapist. Sometimes when doing the job of a physio day in day out you forget how much you have learnt and assume that everyone knows what you know. Having a student with me made me realise how much I have personally learnt and grown as a physiotherapist. Also, having someone question me about exactly what I was doing and why made me think carefully about the things I have been doing with some of the patients and has made me revisit things in order to improve things for the patients.

Okay, I wanted to keep this blog short and just give you a quick insight into what we do and how much I enjoyed my day out with the student physiotherapists. In the next blog we shall continue looking at our home visit physiotherapy service that we offer in Tamworth and how it helps patients in care homes in the Tamworth area.