Y3S2W5: Hands Up

Last Friday we were given our preliminary fourth year placement locations. I'll keep you all in suspense as to where I'll be placed. I created a quick graphic showing where AUT send their fourth year students versus where UoO send their fourth year students. (My artistry is at a 'stick-man' level, so bear with it!). Pleased note that I've likened the students of both schools to superheroes (and not making one a villain)... However, I'm pretty sure Yoda would beat Superman if they were to clash over a turf (clinic) war... 

Hand therapy was the theme of Integrated Studies this week. We had a guest lecturer Hand Therapist take two lectures. The first lecture was pretty gruesome (awesome)! We saw hands that had been chopped, crushed, burned, broken, congenitally deformed, post surgery, missing skin... we were impressed to learn about the intricate work that a hand therapist can do to facilitate healing of the hand. We were reminded of the complex anatomy of the hand and forearm then given skills to differentially diagnose the involvement of different structures. The lab associated with this theme had us measuring pinch strength, sensation testing with filaments (it reminded me of fishing line of different diameters), STI testing (Shape, Texture, Identification test... nb. physios don't do sexual health screening), palpating structures (bones, ligaments etc), differentiating between extrinsic and intrinsic muscle stiffness (i.e. lumbricals), muscle testing (very specific!!), reducing a finger dislocation, and differential diagnosing (tennis elbow, radial tunnel syndrome, posterior interosseous nerve syndrome) and treating conditions of the upper limb such as Mullet Finger & swan necking.

Hand Therapy is NOT Palmistry

One of our lab demonstrators for a hand therapy lab suggested the following book was a 'bible'... so I've added it to my growing physio library of books (and ebooks).

The CVP lecture and lab looked at physio interventions for respiratory disorders: breathing control techniques, relaxation positions, postural and autogenic drainage, flutter/acapella and PEP (positive expiratory pressure), percussion/vibration. We also looked at inhalers, spacers, nebulisers and oxygen therapy devices.

Cultural competence lab had us reflecting on our prejudices, culture and building rapport by talking about our ancestry/family history and ties to regions of the world/NZ as is the cultural norm with Maori greetings (rather than introducing ourselves and getting straight to the point of what brings them in to the clinic).

In social events this week, we had an inter-faculty quiz night on Thursday and a piss-up on Friday!

Coming up next week is the annual physio ball!

 

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 I spent some time browsing around the internet for more physio memes!  

I'm definitely blurring the line between good humour and poor taste with a few of these.

 

 

Hopefully you got a chuckle from a few of those!