FINAL POST SCGH

I really enjoyed my placement at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital (SCGH). I felt as though i really got extra experience in my cardiorespiratory skills.

It took me about an hour and a half to get to Sir Charles Gardiner in the morning as the traffic was terrible. The parking was bad aswell so i used to park about a 20 minuite walk away from the hospital and walk from there.

Because i was on the oncology ward i saw patients with end stage cancers. I saw all different types of cancer (oncology and haemotology) and patients with chest infections, respiratory distress , pneumonias and acute exaccerbations of COPD. I got to suction and i performed three induced sputums.
Most of my patients were older in age but i occasionally saw a younger patient as well. It was difficult to not get emotionally involved with the younger patients.
Aside from this i did see 3 surgical patients on my placement, this was fantastic to get experience in this area.
It was very interesting to learn about the effects of chemotherapy on a patients blood counts and therefore the limitations of what physiotherapy can provide as an intervention. I found somtimes my intervention was extreamly limited to very basic treatments.

I dealt with issues that I hadn't had to deal with in other placements. I dealt with the issue of death. About 5 of my paitents died while I was on placment. I found this very hard to deal with and somtiems questioned whether the intervention I gave could have been more effective and in that way prevented their death. However, my supervisor reassured me that I was providing the correct effective treatment and that most of these people were at the end stage of their disease.

I also dealt with the aspect of pallitive care on this placement. I found that when sometimes people recieve pallative care they wish for no more active treatment. This meant that if this person was to get a chest infection they would recieve no more active intervention ( including physiotherapy). Again this was dificutl to deal with as ethically I felt compelled to help them out.

I learnt so much under my supervisor and although this was sometimes a sad placment, I found the experience very rewarding and challenging.