Monday, October 27, 2008

Too many supervisors

I am on a community physiotherapy placement at the moment which is going well apart from the fact there are so many different supervisors. I really enjoy community physiotherapy because of the more relaxed set up and the social interaction with the clients. I also enjoy doing the exercises with the clients even though by the end of the last class youre really tired.

The only problem i'm having at the moment is having so many different supervisors. They all seem nice and i get along with them fine but they all have their differences. Im required to take all of the classes in the coming weeks and therefore i will have about 8 different supervisors to impress. Even though it seems good to be able to learn the different ways that different physios do things, its tough as a student because each supervisor will generally want you to do what they do.

We are told that any exercises we do are fine as long as they are safe and we have a correct rationale for doing them. However, i dont think its as black and white as that and i believe that some supervisors may become annoyed if you use certain exercies that they dont like doing even if they are safe and you have a correct rationale for them.

In order to avoid the situation of annoying a supervisor ive decided make sure i go over all the exercises im going to do in the class with the supervisor before i take the class. This way i can omit any exercises that a supervisor doesnt like. However, if i really like the exercise im going to ask the supervisor why they dont like it and then ask if i can use it even though they dont normally use it.

Has anyone had a similar situation? Does anyone have any other ideas of what i could do in this situation?

1 comment:

erin said...

It's always a tricky situation being supervised by a number of different people who expect you to do things their way as it's the 'correct way', especially when these differ between them. I agree with you that despite having a rationale for your treatment some supervisors will still believe that you should comply with the way they do things. If they have developed the program for that class and spent a lot of time doing so then perhaps this is fair, especially if they have completed research (and have it published) showing that what they do produces sucessful outcomes. I think its a great idea quickly running through your class plan prior to the beginning as it not only demonstrates to your supervisor that you are well prepared, but that you are open and receptive to any feedback they may have, which as a student are great qualities to have.