Final Entry

On completing my 5 weeks in Broome, my rural experience at the hospital was very similar to what i had anticipated. The Broome hospital was an extremely friendly environment. It had a very multidisciplinary approach to the care of all patients in both the inpatient, emergency and out patient wards. At the commencememnt of every day there was a half an hour hand over meeting held with all members of the team from the speech patholologist, pallitive care nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist and the doctors to a surgical representative. This is quite dis -similar to the handover's i have recieved at my metropolitan placements where the day was usually started with a quick summary from the nurse coordinator, and there was no liaison with other practitioners unless specifically requested by the doctor in charge.

As predicted i gained exposure to so many different feilds of physiotherapy. This was the first placement where i felt i was required to utilise all of the information i have gained over the last four years of study from paediatrics and womens health to musculoskeletal, orthopaedics and cardiorespiratory. I was pleasantly suprised to find there was a maternity ward at the hospital so i would be required to do postnatal assessments. I was constantly referring to text books and notes to refine my knowledge and skills. Unfortunatley i did not get the opportunity to do any rural home visits, i did however make up for this by getting out to different local communities to explore on week end camping trips.

As i had expected, i was required to use my initiative constantly on this placement. My supervisor and the other members of the physiotherapy team were always available if i had any questions, however i was mostly treating and assessing my patients independently. I started off with quite a light caseload, allowing myself a full hour for all of my outpatient appointments. By the end of the placement my treatment sessions had become far more effective and efficient so i was able to increase my caseload.

One of my concerns prior to the commencement of this placement was my lack of exposure to aboriginal culture. I was previously concerned that my cultrual naivty would interfere with my subjective assessments. One of the best experiences i had was treating a traditional aboriginal elder. The patient presented with chronic right sided shoulder pain. When i asked him to describe the pain, he explained to me what happened to the wind, the birds, the colour and the noises of the sky when a storm was coming. The patient taught me that it is sometimes easy to use language my patient is familiar with rather than terminology he has never heard before. As i became more familiar with aboriginal culture and the common colloquial terms, i began to find communication with some of my aboriginal patients alot easier. I also discovered that my observational skills were very powerful, and i could gain alot of information just from watching my patients movement.

This was a fantastic placement that went far and beyond my expectations. I experienced life in a rural community, gained experience in all feilds of physiotherapy and engaged in aboriginal culture and tradition.