Calling all Physiotherapists! Share your experiences...(please!)

[JaneCarter]

Hey guys, I'm currently a student studying to become a physiotherapist. I have little practicle experience other than a couple hundred volunteer hours at a local physiotherapy clinic. There's been several questions on my mind about the physiotheraphy profession in general. This board looks well educated and proffessed Forgive me if this is the wrong section to post my inquiries however I'm one of those 'cautious' people so I'd like to test the water a little before I dive in to the serious business! So far I'm loving my experience at the clinic, it seems to be what I've wanted to do and most of my questions have been answered by the practitioner I work with however I'd like to know from several different sources. I've thought about these over the years and these seem to be the main ones I'd like to ask. My questions are as followed:

1. What were some of the challanges you've had with the move from school to career?
This one is a main one for me because I'm soon to be graduating and am wondering if the experience I have is enough to get a job. My goal is to one day run my own clinic here in Ontario.
2. What are some of the main responsibilities in owning/running/helping run a clinic? (or if you work in a different environment such as sport physio or research sector, some main responsibilities for that field)
3. Day-to-day challenges
Patients following routines (many at my workplace do not and complain about lack of results),
4. Long-term challenges
Client issues, monetary issues, etc.
5. Code of ethics.
This is another important one for me. I am basically looking for some insight into the field. What tips and tricks can you provide.

Of course, all of the questions are completely optional. If you'd like to answer one but leave the others blank, please do so.

Thank you for your contribution!

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[nmarman]

TIP: Cocentrate on your studies, know everything it is the only thing you can do now! There is no other prep you can do in terms of preparing to treat patients. your training should be enough.

TIP: Pick up a book on business a successful practice has little to do with how good a practitioner is and more to do with equipment within practice and how it is run.

TIP: CODE OF ETHICS - in my opinion you have to be stupid not to comply to these on a daily basis just by being a decent person and looking out for you patients. so read them, understand them and live by them. easy!

[violablue]

Also, I'm curious, you say you're presently in a physio program? In Canada, you do many placements while you're going to physio school to give you the hands on. You've been volunteering in a physio clinic...? But this is not the placements you'd get in physio school? I ask because as a physio student you'd be going to a different location each placement, so you'd get hands-on in hospitals, community care possibly, clinics, and so on. This would give you a really good idea of what it's like to be a physio as you'd work with patients for a 5 - 6 week period depending on school.

With my program, we had two one week placements, followed by five six-week placements. They were spaced throughout the program so you'd do an academic unit, then a clinical placement, repeated.

The CPA and the CPO and the OPA all have lots of great information on-site, lots of ethics and practice information.