Placements; Travel Time
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to raise a professional.
My first placement was in Halifax, NS at an outpatient cardiorespiratory rehabilitation program. I went with one classmate and between the two of us, we had 2 clinical instructors that shared the load with teaching us. To make up for not having the opportunity to get our feet wet with inpatient cardiorespiratory, we often had the opportunity to visit the local hospitals. My favourite visit was the day we went to observe surgeries. Admittedly, my partner saw a triple bypass with complications that lasted 8h, but I saw 3 total knee replacements and 1 total hip replacement. Within the rehab. clinic we ran exercise classes geared towards various abilities and conditions as well as educational sessions. All of the classes were run with a registered dietitian, a nurse, and a physiotherapist. By the end of this placement, we were handling our own classes, their exercise prescription, our own intake sessions and assisting wherever else we could be used. This placement was incredible, not necessarily because of what I was doing, cardiorespiratory isn’t my favourite subject, but because of who we were with. The staff were incredible and the clients were gems. Leaving this placement was a hard thing to do, but it encouraged me to look forward to future placement experiences.
My second placement was in Shelburne, NS in a rural hospital. This meant that there was a blend of inpatient and outpatient. This was supposed to be my MSK placement, and that was covered with the outpatient setting. I went with one of my classmates to my setting to work under one clinical instructor. There were two other classmates that were in Shelburne with us, but worked at another clinic. This placement was very interesting because our clinical instructor had never had a student in Canada before. They had been trained in physiotherapy in another country and wrote the cross-examination to practice in Canada. Man, I don’t think I’ve ever had someone so dialled into how I was learning and where I needed a hand. I’ve never felt so supported and trusted, but they always knew to a finer detail where I was in my learning than I could articulate. It was an incredible experience to work with someone so seasoned and so good at educating. The inpatient process was an interesting adjustment and along with that, we found how the local rural hospitals worked together to provide care to the residents. In the particular place I was staying, there weren't many post-surgery, those folks stayed in Halifax, but rather there was a lot of people who were awaiting long term care placement. Since I was at a rural hospital, the physiotherapist saw everyone for everything. This gave us a chance to see what it would be like working with neuro patients as well as doing things like home visits. Again, even though this placement was entirely different from the last, the people are what made it amazing.
During the first placement, I travelled by taking my husband all around Halifax to show him all the cool places I’d already found. It was a blessing to get to spend his first 6 weeks in Halifax as a resident here doing enjoyable little evening trips. During the second placement, I did a lot more exploring with my classmates. We were always going for hikes, runs, having a fire and seeking out new adventures. If my friends weren’t available, I would adventure on my own or with the woman I was staying with during the week. I found Shelburne to be rich with history and local art, so of course, I brought some home with me. I made it a goal to visit as many of the local white sand beaches as I could while I was in Shelburne. I only got to 4 but each were unique in their own ways. My favourite by far was Welkum Park.
Sandy Point Lighthouse, lowtide