postgraduate physio in gynae from australia

Hi,

Thanks for your email. i posted this on the forum in case others like you are interested...

When you say gynae, i am assuming women's health.

Personally, i wouldn't be doing a post grad masters until you have had least 3 years of normal work under you belt. The reason why is because to specialise so soon is not wise. If you think about how a doctor's training goes, they do a year's internship and then 2 general rotation years before they start their specialisation training - and that is at the minimum.

I think the same goes for physiotherapy. Women's health is a big area. There is a big demand for it. I believe that to be a good women's health physio, you need to be able to understand the whole musculoskeletal system and how all the joints work together in a system WITH the pelvic floor.

I have seen women's health physios do well at what they do but would do better if they had the musculoskeletal knowledge i had. One of them is my best friend. She regularly asks me questions and to treat people's SIJs before she can fully help her clients.

So, my recommendation to you is this...
1. Get lots of experience in outpatients or a private practice setting where there is a lot of back pain cases. If you are newly graduated then aim to do this for at least 3 years while doing points 2 and 3 below...
2. Learn as many manual therapy techniques and approaches that you can. Good courses are run by Manual Concepts - www.manualconcepts.com - do all their courses if you can!
3. Buy Diane Lee's "The Pelvic Girdle" as a good base for learning about the pelvis. Her DVD set is also valuable.
4. Learn about motor control and motor learning - this is very important in the world of women's health.
4. Do a post grad masters in Manual Therapy - like the one at the University of Western Australia - www.cms.uwa.edu.au - you will need at least 4 years experience to go well in this course. But you can start the external units and do them over a year...
5. Then do a post grad diploma in women's health. To be honest, i don't think there is enough in it to make a masters course just in this area. Not unless you do research into it. But a few good weekend courses along with your manual therapy training will be fine i think.

Now this whole process will probably take you 5 years. You can obviously start learning about women's health during the whole process (never lose sight of your goal). But you mentioned you are newly graduated so i really believe you will become a better women's health physio this way.

I don't know about the course at Curtin. I am sure it is on their website.

Please don't think that women's health is just about doing pelvic floor exercises. There is so much more to it than that.

Lastly, this is just my opinion. It is based on having friends who are good women's health physios who have a good grounding in Manual Therapy first.

Thanks! Good luck with your career.