clinical placements in a country diff to where u're studying

Hi,

I am an Irish citizen studying physiotherapy in Amsterdam. Our course offers the option of doing clinical placements abroad.

I was wondering if anyone has completed their clinical placements in a country different to the one in which they were studying and how they got on.

Has anyone combined their clinical placement with voluntary/aid work?

Thanks,

I did my final one in Canada at the University of Alberta. They could not have been more helpful. It was a while ago now but the best bet was to contact the clinical placement co-ordinator in the country/school you are looking at. Importantly they need to check if you can be covered under their insurance for students. Good luck :D

We just had a final year student from your school here in Hong Kong, he did a placement at the HK PolyU clinic. He had a great time, learned a lot, particularly in terms of improving his basic knowledge and reasoning skills, and completing a more structured assessment, which he felt was somewhat lacking from previous placements.

He also had a great time in Hong Kong itself, which is a mad, mad city, always ready to party, managing to time his trip to include the HK rugby 7s and the Phillips soccer 7s.

Hi. In response to your post i thought i would let you know about GAP SPORTS ABROAD. They're a company specialising in GAP years etc for sports coaches, sports psychologists, medics, nurses and physiotherapists. The voluntary work is based in Ghana and you can go for 5 weeks or 3 months. You have to fund the project and flights etc yourself. I qualify as a physio in September and i'm flying out there the day after i finish to volunteer with this company.

They accept physios from 2nd year undergraduate levels onwards aswell as fully qualifed physios and the projects can count towards university clinical placements. A girl in the first year of my course is going in March as part of her placement

For more info feel free to get back to me or check out their website on www.gapsportsabroad.com There's a link on there somewhere for Physiotherapy projects.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your help guys!

Physiosmith, I may be in contact again later in the year.

hi,

i´m studying in enschede and i just came back from my placement in cape town.
it was really cool, but i won`t recommend it if you really want to learn a lot. it is just possible to do the placement in public hospitals and they are lacking of stuff. so there is almost no supervision. on the other side you get your own patients from the first day, so if you already have experience with patients this might be an advantage.
i`m starting my second place soon in switserland in a private practice. after this, i have my last one on the dutch antillen, curacao. if you want i can tell you how they are!
cheers

Best way to do it is through a university. I went to Canada (from Australia) to Dalhousie in Nova Scotia for my final clinic. It was one of the best things I have done. They enrolled me in a subject at the university so I could be covered for the clinic. It was made even easier as a Canadian girl wanted to do clinic in Oz

Think you will find it very hard to do directly with a clinic/hospital, due to, as someone else mentioned, insurance.