Over the last couple of weeks I have been able to a selection of neuro patients, the majority of which have conditions I have never even heard of before. I am now beginning to develop an understanding of just how complex neuro patients are to treat. With most neuro patients at shents, most cannot do the exercises you prescribe without gross compensations. Hence you have to correct them at about a million levels - ie you need to be an octopus with many eyes.
Although I am usually always able to work out that the exercise is not being performed correctly, I have heaps of trouble working out the exact ins and outs of the intricate compensations neuro patients make. According to my supervisor this skill takes years to develop, but I cant help feeling a little regretful that these patients scored a physio student!!!!!! Looking back, I think it would have been helpful to spend less time practicing on each other and have more real patients come in to visit us in the labs, rahter than just a couple in a huge lecture setting!
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I haven't done my neuro placement yet but I saw a few neuro patients during my Gerontology placement and I completely agree with you Leah. There are so many things affected in a neuro patient that you have trouble determining where to start. I think that's what's so great about neuro, it'll always be different between patients.
In terms of practicing, I think we had to learn our patient handling skills and know how to work with normal before we are ready to deal with abnormal. With having a few real patients come in, it would have been purely passive learning.
I do agree that those few Master's classes that we had were quite useful, but only because we had practiced those same exercises on ourselves and to see them work on a real patient was great.
Hey Leah,
I agree with both you and Sabrina. We needed to practice our manual handling, but practicing with real patients would be very beneficial. I think one of the problems the uni faces is that there is too much to teach and not enough time so they focus on what they can. I also think that many patients wouldn't want to come in for 'practice'. We just have to hope that we have understanding supervisors that are willing to let us improvise and guide us when needed with patients that are not textbook.
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