On my rural placement, I was given the option of inpatients or outpatients at the Hospital. I chose outpatients after much debate J and with this, was given a new graduate from Notre Dame as my placement supervisor. I had proceeded through three weeks of inpatients with not only my direct supervisor up on the ward, but with other Physiotherapists that were on the ward also .
At my mid-placement assessment, I was given no negative feedback regarding my current performance, and was told to continue building on my skills to run the ward more independently for the last two weeks.
When some of the other Physiotherapists came up to visit me on the ward, they had no problems with my performance. As it was my first inpatient experience, it was all new to me. On top of this, I had not yet done my cardiopulmonary nor my neuro placment, so I therefore, was reviewing much information over the placment to bring myself up to speed. However, as I wasn’t recieving any negative feedback, I figured my performance was fine, and I just continued to improve and build on my confidence each day.
In my final week, the overseeing Supervisor, from outpatines decided he wanted to come up to the ward and see how I was performing. He informed me later that day that he was not impressed by the way I was handling the ward. He was dissatisfied with my note-taking, and my confidence in dealing with patients. He informed me if I didn’t improve I would potentially require additional development. I was obviously upset, as this was the first time I was informed that my performance was not adequate. I felt I could run then ward indepently, and was doing a fair job.
By the end of the placement, I recieved a competent grade, and the overseeing Supervisor apologised to me as he felt they had not been able to get the best out of me from the placement, and he was upset as he felt they had not done me justice with the supervision/learning I was given.
What I learnt from this experience was to find out from the very beginning of my placements what my exact expectations were, as I recieved mixed messages from different Physiotherapists on this clinic. Also, I learnt that not every Physiotherapist practices in the same way. The overseeing Supervisor was extremely abrupt in his communication with patients, and very much took the philosophy that Physiotherapists were the big, bad guys who got patients up, and we have to use our voice and presence to get in there and do what we have to do. He took my quieter method of communicating with patients as a lack of confidence and ability, when in fact, it is simply a different communication style, which can still be equally effective.
He also stated that my notes were a weakness that I needed to work hard on, although my notes have been my one extreme strength throughout the rest of my ward placments. Whether this has to do with my rural experience, or simply being told clearer how the notes were to be done, I am not sure.
Overall, I believe that many communication styles can be effective in achieving the same result, and also, even in looking to the future when beginning employment, to understand from day one the specific requirements that are needed to be successful at a paticular position, particularly in running a ward independently.
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