Pediatric internship placement

Dear ones,

At the moment I (second year regular PhyisioTherapy student) am looking for internship placements (3 times three months within the next 1 1/2 years). And I would like to work with children very much...


Now, here are some "tricky things" and maybe one of you has a thought on this:

- Is it advisable to work with children whose mother tongue is not yours (English wouldb e okay, but since I am German, Spanish or Portuguese I am not super super fluent in)?

- Would you recommend a clinic or a private practice for working with children? Is there something like a "good start" into the field?

- Is it necessary to work with grown-up patients before you get in touch with children? (because they demand more than "only" learned knowledge or something)

- After scanning the web for pediatric adresses I simply did not find too many. The associations are probably another address to check out. Is the pediatric PT level comparable, or are there "more developed countries" for this?

That's it for now.
Thank you for reading!
Kai

Dear Kai,

As you must know, the Dutch have a 4 yr part-time postgraduate education to become a paediatric physiotherapist, which means you will not be able to find an internship in Holland that easily.
As a (dutch) paediatric physio in Spain, I can tell you that knowing the lingo is important, not so much for the children, but for the parents or caregivers.
Half of all our work as paediatric physio´s is instructing parents. You have to be pretty fluent in the language AND believe me, you have to know something about the culture as well.

You, being German, must have noticed the numerous difference between Holland and Germany. I have worked in Germany as well, I know.
You would probably be more successful in finding an address in Germany. The Germans do not have such strict rules. I would suggest all other german speaking countries would be OK as well. Switzerland and Austria have a high standard of paediatric physiotherapy care.

Good luck... and to answer your question about starting in paediatrics straightaway....
I recommend getting a few years of working with adults in before you start as a paediatric physio. Get to know your rol and profession and be comfortable in it before you start treating children.

A paediatric physiotherapist has to be wise, competant, playful, a little older, maybe even have kids, to really understand how parents "work". Its a fine mix of practical knowledge, games, finetuning into the child and parents wishes.... a fascinating job... the best in my opinion... but not that easy.....

good luck with your studies..... Esther

for more info www.estherderu.com