Initial Entry- Broome Health Campus

On my fourth rotation I have been placed at Broome Hospital Health Campus. I am really excited about this placement. It is a lot different than all my other placements which were situated in Perth. After the 5 weeks though I think I will be looking forward to coming home again.

I am living in a house which is only a 5 minute drive from Broome Health campus so getting to the hospital will not be a big issue, unlike my other placements which have been sometimes an hour away. I start each day at 8am and finish at 4pm.

From reading the reports on the internet and from talking to another student, I expect to be involved in a wide range of physiotherapy sectors. I expect to see cardiorespiratory, neurology and post-operative patients. In addition to this I will also be involved in women’s health physiotherapy; I am excited about this as I haven’t had a placement that covers women’s health as yet, I will need to pull out my notes from women’s health in third year. I am not sure wether I will be involved in the outpatients sector as well. But overall im glad that I will be involved in such a broad range of physiotherapy sectors as I think it will help me consolidate all my knowledge from previous placements.

As this is a regional sort of hospital, there are only a few physiotherapists that cover the whole hospital, so I expect that there may be a large caseload. I think I will need to learn how to prioritise my patient list so that I can see all the patients that urgently need treatment.

I assume that a lot of my patients will be indigenous patients. I have heard it is sometimes very difficult to establish good treatment with these people. Firstly because of their differences to Westerners with respect to time. Aboriginal people will often attend physiotherapy sessions a lot later than their allotted time; this can be very difficult when you are working on a timed schedule. Secondly I have heard that they often do not complete their exercises; as this is often an impertinent part of physiotherapy, it could be very challenging to treat the indigenous people.

I am hoping to get exposed to the aboriginal culture while on this placement. I hope by the end of this placement I have a greater understanding of the aboriginal lifestyle and their culture, back in Perth I think I have become a bit ignorant of their way of life and traditions.