World Physiotherapy Day occurs every year on the 8th of September. It is a day to celebrate and raise awareness of physiotherapy in the community and what better way to do this is than to offer neck/shoulder or calf muscle massages to the public. All funds raised were donated toward maintaining Dunedin's Physiotherapy Pool.
The world confederation for physical therapy (WCPT) is a large promoter of physical therapy world-wide. They produce posters and banners for clinics to display - below are two pictures from posters - very cool!
The regional physiotherapy body celebrated world physiotherapy day with a treasure hunt around Dunedin!! What better way to be physically active!
Integrated studies looked the role of physiotherapy in the mental health area. Dementia, depression, anxieties, psychosis etc. The first lab for IS was great! When we got through the patient assessments (questionnaires etc) we were invited to join in a mindfulness activity and a yoga-like relaxation activity. For whatever reason I was not settled and displayed some poor mindfulness and self-control (might have been the stress of resitting my presentation the next day). Anyway, here's what happened. The mindfulness activity involved taking two raisins. We had to see it as a unique shape, as possibly having a smell (yes we smelt it), we noticed how salivation had begun, after putting it in our mouth we felt its texture, taste, etc. The second raisin was to be eaten as we usually would... automatically. My problem begun right from the get go... after not having any lunch my automated response was to put it straight into my mouth, chew, swallow... bugger! So I had to get another two raisins. Anyway, this made a bit of a scene (we were sitting in a circle). Having demonstrated my inability to be mindful I should have known better than to complete the next activity next to somebody who snores. This second activity had us lying relaxed on yoga mats, we were to follow the instructions of the lab demonstrator (who was a specialist in the area of physio and mental health). Instructions guided out attention around the classroom and inward on our body sensations. The guy I was lying near begun to snore, he snored right in my ear and I struggled to suppress my laughter. After the class I apologised to the lab demonstrator for my lack of mindfulness (and self-control). What a lab!! The second lab was nice and short. It concentrated on the physio role in a dementia patient ward.
So I mentioned that I had to resit my clinical presentation. I was happy with this opportunity given that my 'winging it' before the semester break had not paid off... probably because I rambled about my patient and had little/no literature to back up anything. Cool, so round two was on Wednesday and I wasn't alone. It turned out another student had focused too much on the client case too (and rumoured to have put his slides together after waking at 5am the day of the presentation)... he's a smart guy and can usually ramble his way through anything. Anyway, I was prepared with a script and had re-jigged my powerpoint presentation. I kept to the same topic, answering the question "what is the best manual therapy for mechanical neck pain, given that the literature suggests they are equally effective?" So, how did it go Round Two? Well I got it all out in the end, even if I was over time (again) and wishing I had a bit more drool in my mouth to keep things running smoothly.
Our two hour CVP lecture on Monday was nicely split between our usual lecturer (topic: non-invasive ventilation) and a guest lecturer (another surgeon from Dunedin Hospital) on vascular surgeries and peripheral vascular disease. It was very interactive (very!) - the presenter didn't have a powerpoint, rather he just systematically go around class asking each of us questions and filling the gaps when needed. The third CVP lecture of the week (on Thursday) was on general surgery, presented by a general surgeon (actually, he was a breast surgeon specialist). He recognised that ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) lead to better patient outcomes, and physiotherapy plays an important role in this strategy.
In the labs we were able to experience some of the non-invasive respiratory devices (CPAP and IBBP). In addition, we discussed respiratory management for patient's with spinal cord injury and some last resort techniques for unconscious patients based on primitive reflexes. I enjoyed the CPAP and IBBP aspects of the lab the most. The CPAP (image below) is similar to sticking your head out the window of a moving car (not recommended...) or walking outside on a windy Wellington day... essentially it is a machine that blows air (or gas, possibly humidified - depending on the model) into your mouth or nose. The high pressure splints open the airways and is normally used on patients with sleep apnoea. I had a go talking with a nasal CPAP and found that it was most odd because the air rushes from the nose and back out of the mouth as you talk. This was entertaining. The other machine was a IBBP... like a CPAP this machine can be set to blow air into the mouth or nose, however it switches off when the flow rate stops (e.g. when the lungs are full) so the patient can breathe out easier. Put simply, this machine is interesting in that the machine does most of the breathing in for the patient!
Due to the success of the first cultural dinner (good job student exec!) we had Cultural Dinner 2.0. This was again at the Hunter Centre at 7pm on Wednesday. Again, there was a plethora of cultural dishes both mains and pudding! The personally think one of the key highlights is having the staff mingle with us, even with their busy schedules! Some staff are actually pretty dedicated to the cultural dinner cause, one staff had his cultural dish slow cooking on his office bookshelf from midday!
I've discovered elevator humour (sort of). On Wednesday we took the elevator down from 7th floor. When we got on, one of the overhead lights must have blown and we remarked that "the mood lighting was fairly effective" given that we were all standing closely in silence. The elevator then proceeded to stop on most floors on the way down as more people squeezed on. We decided the 23 person capacity was very optimistic given that 11 people was a stretch! One of the medical staff mentioned that they'd hate to be the 23th person, but I claimed that they would be lucky to be the first one off. The hospital staff are (mostly) very friendly, the pain team dropped in on a patient we were having a consultation with and reminded the patient to "be sure to press your PCA (patient controlled analgesia) button, especially when you know the physio is coming". Not only is this a good thing for the patient to do, as it allows them to perform respiratory and mobilisation exercises in less pain, but it is a funny inside joke that seeing the physio is an overall painful experience... great humour! The patients are allowed a sense of humour too, one patient I saw retorted to the question "how are you feeling today?" with "Well, I don't feel well enough to take you out dancing". We'll take that as a compliment. For some people, there are things on the respiratory ward that are not pleasant to do. Respiratory physio involves encouraging phlegm expulsion, and then looking at its quality/quantity. My physio peer (we were working in pairs) looked moderately disturbed when listening to the very wet sounding phlegm coupled with the sound of hard-work of bringing it up... then quickly turned away quickly when we were assessing the phlegm in the specimen container.
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