Supervision

Through the pracs completed so far i have experienced a wide range of different techniques used by the physio supervisors to teach and assess. The techniques that are used contribute largly to the enjoyment, the amount learned and also the stress felt whilst on placement. I am not talking here about the supervisors being really friendly or easy, more the way in which they go about their assesment.

Whilst on a prac earlier in the semester i experienced supervision that didnt really suit me and thus caused quite a stressful time. The supervisor was insistant that every aspect of the sessions were completed the way that they wanted and were taught. This came down to the ordering of the questions, the words i used to ask them, the way i wrote my notes and the types of intervention used. For the placement it felt like i was not utilising my clinical reasoning skills but just trying to copy the supervisor and please them. I felt that i didnt really learn much except for how to please them.

Contrary to this, a different placement i went on provided a very flexible supervision process which resulted in me enjoying the prac alot more and learning a great deal. At the beginning of the prac the supervisor sat down and discussed certain things about my learning and style of learning in order to best judge the way to supervise. All through out the placement they asked constantly what things i wanted to improve on, how much supervision they should give. This did not make the placement cushy, i felt it made the prac much more beneficial and i felt more comfortable and hence learnt a great deal more.

As a result of this i will endevour to speak to my supervisors more at the beginning of the placement so we can both get the most out of the 4 weeks!