Joanne Junior Physiotherapist “I work with people who have a problem with muscles, bones, circulation and lungs. This can be in hospital or out in the community.”

Joanne is a newly qualified physiotherapist. She's working on her rotation which means she changes department or her role every four months. At the moment she's working in the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU).

What do you have to do as part of your rotation?

At the moment I am working in the ITU. This is mainly working with people who are ventilated or unconscious to give them chest physiotherapy to help with their breathing.

But every four months my job changes so I've already worked in a number of places. In paediatrics within the community, in patient rehabilitation in elderly care and in outpatients in musculo-skeletal physiotherapy. I've worked in neuro rehabilitation - this is working with people who have had strokes or a brain injury to help them get movement back where it might have been lost or to help them to keep the muscles strong. It's to help them to recover or adapt - this was in the community too.

When I’m working I'm closely supervised by a senior physiotherapist and they give me training while I’m working. But I am expected to work on my own most of the time. One thing that’s good is that I get to spend most of my time with patients as I’m not senior enough to do the paper work!

So what have you enjoyed best so far?

I really enjoyed the paediatrics. When you're working with children it's always really lively and the work is based around play and getting the children to enjoy their physiotherapy. The children will sometimes have had an injury, which needs physiotherapy to help them recover. Or it might be that they've a condition that needs physiotherapy to keep their body healthy. I think this is what I'd like to specialise in, in the future. I'd quite like to work in a specialist children's hospital.

You're working on ITU at the moment - who do you work with?

I work as part of a ward-based team with nursing staff, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and discharge planners.

We all meet together once a week to talk about the patients on the ward. Some patients have a short stay in ITU others are there for some time. It can be difficult working in ITU as the patients are very ill and you can’t always do anything to help. And, of course, some patients die. This is the worst part of the job, realising that not everyone gets better.

But the good bits of the job are meeting people from different backgrounds, of different ages and they all have different stories. It’s good when you build up a relationship with someone and they get better. It’s also good to work with different professionals who have different stories and experiences.

What do you find challenging?

Sometimes it’s really hard; I have a lot of patients and I can’t spend as long with patients as I’d like. It can be hard working with difficult patients like people with dementia or children who don’t want to be treated.

But the main challenges are the exciting part of the job – problem solving, finding the best way to treat people. Each person has their own needs and although it may be challenging it makes the job exciting.

I'm so glad I chose this profession.