bouncing around ideas

In my last blog I mentioned my feelings towards my musculoskeletal outpatient prac. One other aspect of this prac that I thought really appealed to me was the number of students that were in the placement at the same time. Even though it meant less face-to-face time with our tutor, it facilitated a social environment which I believe improved our skills as physiotherapists. Maybe as a result of the decreased time we could spend with the tutor, there were many times when we bounced treatment and management ideas of each other. Although most of the time we didn't drastically change our approach according to any person's advice, it did guide our decision making and clinical reasoning process for the better. By receiving input from other students with differing ways of thinking, ideas that we might have missed were made clear to us. All in all it was a highly effective way in which to provide the most comprehensive management for our clients.

Once we begin working in the following years, those of us working in a hospital or large group setting will still have the advantage of being able to confer with a multitude of other physio's. Not just physio's though, every other health professional we are associated with can assist us in some way or another, which leads me to my final and illuminating point.

I believe it is absolutely necessary for those beginning their careers in a private practice, to establish a network of professional health workers that are able to assist in clinical reasoning and decision making skills. I know there are some freakishly smart students among us, but even they can not possibly know enough (as new graduates) to provide the most effective treatment possible to each of their patients. Even a close group of new graduates that are working in private practices throughout Perth, can be utilised to share ideas on how to best treat their patients. Remember we do have facebook...