I am currently on placement in a hospital setting where I go between 3 different wards throughout the day with a total of 6 different physiotherapists who may ask me to see a patient or supervise me while I am working with a patient. At first I enjoyed getting a lot of different opportunities and opinions however after awhile it became difficult to manage. It was obvious there was not enough communication between the staff members, and between myself and the staff as on a number of occasions I was expected to be in several places at the same time and was not given any indication which patients I was expected to see during the day. This made it difficult to manage my time effectively and on several occasions physios got annoyed.
After awhile it became too difficult so I spoke to one of the physiotherapists. I told her that I was finding it hard to know where I was meant to be and who I was meant to be seeing. She agreed with me and had recognised that there were several people trying to bark orders. To overcome this and to make things more clear to both myself and the other staff members we make a list every morning of what events I have on during the day and what patients I am to see. This had made things a lot easier and I can now effectively manage my time.
On all my previous placements I have only had 1 or 2 physios therefore have never had a problem like this before. I didn’t really know whether to speak up about it or persevere with the situation as it was. I am very glad that I did say something before it became too much as we were able to reach a simple and effective solution.
1 comment:
Well done on having the courage to speak up in a situation like that. I also find that as a student trying to find, when is it ok to speak up in conversations or in situations like these where it doesn't come across as you know better that your supervising physio.
I know several students who have been on placement in which similar situations have arose and they haven't said anything and just played it out for the rest of the placement as they did not want to get on the supervisors bad side, and risk their chances of passing. And as a result did not enjoy their time on that placement. So I believe that standing up for yourself and speaking up when neccessary can really make or break your clinical experiences.
Also I think it really depends on the initial relationship you have with your supervisor and whether you feel that if you do say something that it's not going to be taken the wrong way.
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