Professional Roles - Physiotherapist
Professional Roles - Physiotherapist
Informed
Shaun works in a university gym as a Personal Trainer and notices that there is one client who attends twice a day, every day, always using the treadmill for at least 1 hour, they don’t use other equipment. He notices recently they have become quite pale and thin and are no longer using the carbohydrate gels they would normally have or hydrating. The sessions on the treadmill also seem to be getting longer. Shaun offers to speak to them about their training regime/ goals for exercise and discovers that the client is experiencing significant difficulties with their studies and has not been eating properly, instead, skipping meals and increasing their exercise to try and cope with stress. Shaun listens to the client and offers support and advice regarding gym use. He also provides information about nutrition in line with his personal trainer role and encourages the client to seek support with the University GP service.
Skilled
Debra is a newly qualified physiotherapist working in an outpatient clinic setting. She sees a young adult who has recently sprained their ankle. The young adult discusses her normal activity levels which include a daily 5 mile run. Debra provides assessment, treatment and rehab exercises and arranges to see the young adult in 2 weeks, advising them to not run until they are reviewed again. At the review appointment, Debra notices that the young adult’s ankle has got worse rather than better, with significant increase in swelling and now descriptors of shin pain. Debra talks to the young adult about the previous 2 weeks and the rehab programme and it becomes clear that the young adult has done far too many repetitions of the exercise and has been running daily. The young adult also talks a lot about their fear of weight gain and muscle loss if she doesn’t keep her exercise regime up. Debra is aware that the young adult also has a history of anxiety. Debra suspects the young adult has worsened her ankle sprain and may now have ‘shin splints’ from overtraining the sprained ankle. She provides support to the young adult and acknowledges that resting and rehab can be difficult. She chooses to liaise with a more senior colleague regarding the ongoing management of the young adult as she is aware there are more complexities than just a sprained ankle that need to be addressed.
Enhanced
Chris is a mental health physiotherapist working in an acute adult mental health ward. He has been asked to assess a middle aged adult for mobility and function by the nurses. He notices the adult, who has a history of depression and an eating disorder, appears very low weight and unsteady on their feet. They struggle to stand up straight reporting significant pain in their back and hips. The nurses report the adult has not been eating well during their admission. Chris is aware of the risk of reduced bone mineral density and fragility fractures in eating disorder patients and asks for advice from an eating disorder specialist physiotherapist with regards to mobility and function.
Specialist
Olivia is an advanced physiotherapist working in a Specialist Eating Disorder Unit. She provides physiotherapy and psycho-educational support to patients with dysfunctional exercise habits and altered body awareness. As part of her role, she provides support, training and 1;1 supervision to her ‘non ED specialist’ physiotherapy colleagues in inpatient, outpatient and mental health setting training opportunities and 1:1 supervision.