Clinic Hours Second Year Essay: Total Hours 50

STYD90 Reflective Essay

Key Skills Required for Sports Therapy

For a physio/sports therapist there are many key skills required for employment within these industries such as injury prevention management (Adam, Peters & Chipchase, 2013). This can be important for a sports therapist as one of the key aims to help treat and manage injuries and this can be done with the prevention of further injuries and a sports therapist can develop this skills through research of injury prevention methods and studies examining their effects. For example, the knowledge to be able to write an injury prevention method around core stability to prevent different injuries on the lower extremity (Bliven & Anderson, 2013). Another good skill required for employment is communication skills as a physio will be working 1 to 1 with their client and they will have to clearly communicate the training plan so that the client fully understands the different exercises they will participate in (Peek, Carey, Sanson-Fisher & Mackenzie, 2016). This is skill is important for a physio as a recent study shows physios with good, clear communication skills could help a client adhere to a exercise programme better (Driver, Kean, Oprescu & Lovell, 2016) These skills are important for a sports therapist in maintaining up to date knowledge of their practice and develop clinical skills within sports therapy (Ezzat & Maly, 2012),

Current Trends for Client Motivation

One current trend within sports therapy which has can give the client motivation is use of different treatment modalities such as ultrasound as this can give therapeutic effects for the athlete (Vieira et al, 2012). Different therapists have different opinions on modalities and a specific key skill a therapist should follow is to learn all the modalities and test them out to find the most effective specifically for the therapist. This skill is essential as many different modalities have different effective so it is important for the therapist to stay up to date on the ever changing trends of treatment modalities such as the use of the ultrasound which has different opinion on its effectiveness on injuries such as acute ankle sprains (Tiemstra, 2012).

Governing Bodies and their Requirements

The main governing bodies used for sports therapy is the Sports Therapy Organisation and this is a non profit organisation which provide further training and CPD in order to help sports therapist maintain a professional level of knowledge and skills when practising (Appendix 1). Another governing body The Society of Sports Therapists sets out its standards of proficiency which shows some of the key skills required for the job such as identification and assessment of injury (Appendix 2) This shows some of key skills required for a sports therapist such as a good level of anatomy to identify the different bones, muscles and ligaments as well as being able to assess these through the use of musculoskeletal assessment (Appendix 2). Another governing body within sports therapy is the GCMT which is the Council of Soft Tissue Therapists which is a governing body for things related with soft tissue therapy and this is a website to help with certain training and skills related to soft tissue therapy (Appendix 3).

The Place for Sports Therapist within a Sporting Environment

A sports therapist would be seen in a variety of ways within a sporting environment such as in a clinic where they will be required to provide one to one sessions relating to a variety of injuries caused from physical activity and treating them with a variety of methods. This role in a clinic may be done through soft tissue massage which is a important part of sports therapy in different aspects such as pre game massage to increase blood flow to relax the muscles and post game massage for the relaxation of tight muscles after physical activity (Hoffman, Badowski, Chin & Stuemfle, 2016).

Another role in a sporting environment would be for musculoskeletal assessment when a player has a injury as this role is important as this is used to find out prior injuries and how this may impact future injuries such as ankle injuries as musculoskeletal assessment of the ankle which can help identify what injury has occurred and at what location (Rao, Riskowski & Hannan, 2012). One example of this would be determining if the client has a fracture at their ankle as 10-25% of ankle sprains are actually fractures and they can determine by using the Ottawa Ankle Rules (Verhagen, 2013).

Another major role within a sports organisation for a sports therapist is to provide intervention methods to the athletes to help provide prehabilitation of certain injuries such as providing proprioceptive training for the prevention of ankle sprains for basketball players (Lazarou, Kofotolis, Pafis & Kellis, 2017). Another way they do this role within a sporting organisation is by providing external supports such as kinesiology taping and ankle braces to help with certain conditions such as ankle and knee braces for the reduction for lower extremity injuries within sports such as basketball which require high amounts of changing direction and fast cutting movements (Farwell et al, 2013).

Conclusion

A sports therapist requires many different skills such as the knowledge of anatomy of the human body and being able to use this knowledge to be able to identify specifically what injury has occurred. Furthermore, a sports therapist must be able to communicate effectively with the client when discussing through the whole process such as when discussing the exercise and treatment programme so that they fully adhere to the programme. These specific knowledge and skills are essential for any therapist looking to gain employment as a sports therapist.

Individual Action Plan For Personal Skills

Subject Specific Technical Skills Action Plan

Reflective Essay

Placement learning is important within a degree programme as it gives the students the experience to develop hands on skills within that work place such as being able to develop different soft tissue therapy skills when doing placement in a private clinic (Jackson, 2013). Another reason it is important to degree students as part of their course description requires them to gain a certain amount of practical placement hours to pass their course such as my sports therapy course which requires you to gain over 300 hours to pass the course. Furthermore, placement learning is important due to the development of personal skills such as confidence and time management as they can obtain different knowledge from the other employees in that work place and this can help develop their personal  and practical skills. Such as gaining knowledge of different techniques of injury prevention and this can help with the students confidence due to them gaining a wider knowledge of the area of interest. I believe placement learning is vital within a degree as this can give you a better understanding of the job potentially the student will be employed in after the degree. This is important as it can either give the motivation to do want to complete the degree or give them a different perspective on where specifically they would like to work. For example, this is important in sports therapy as different students want to work in different areas of therapy and placement gives the student a insight of what area they might want to work in such as a pitch side therapist or in a private clinic. Placement learning is important for a student due to the them being able to work one to one with their supervisor and identify and strengths and weakness and being able to discuss and plan to improve on them within their placement (Rowe & Winchester-Seeto, 2013). This will help with graduateness as they will be able to work on the skills required for their degree programme and be able to identify any weaknesses to be able to work on and this is important as they will be able improve on their practical and personal skills prior to the finish off their degree programme (Bonsaksen, Granå, Celo, Ellingham & Myraunet, 2013). One reason why employers value experiential learning is that it gives the client hands on experience meaning that they if they already have an experience in that work force then they shouldn’t need as much time to adjust to the work place setting. For example, as a sports therapist such as the different procedures and professionalism expectations as these should be the same throughout the different clinics and the placement learning will give the client the knowledge of these areas. Also, another reason is that experiential learning will help develop a students practical skills and gives that student an advantage when applying due to them to develop and perfect their practical skills through the knowledge of other therapists they have worked with and this is important for an employer as a student with these skills is less likely to make mistakes and be able to start the job with all the skills required for a therapist due to their placement learning (Wilton, 2014).

Analysis of my Work Placement

One success from my placement was the development of some of my personal skills especially my communication as prior to placement I was quite nervous in communicating one to one with clients. However, through-out my placement I gained communication skills by working with other therapists and taking how they deal with clients and use that to develop my communication. This was important to me as this was one of the personal skills I wanted to develop in my Personal Development Plan (Appendix 8). This was important as I believe prior to placement I was quite nervous in talking one to one with my clients. However, I did talk with the some of the other therapists and implemented this into my BUCS Volleyball placement in which I did improve my communication when prescribing treatment plans. Another success from BUCS Volleyball placement was the development of pitch side skills as this was one area which is important as therapist as this can be vital in the help of an injured player. I believe this was a success and I used some of the available courses used to develop pitch side skills such as working under pressure and using our therapy bag effectively. This was a success as I was more organised meaning I could be quicker pitch side if a player was inured. Another pitch side skills I developed was my taping skills as I gradually got quicker and quicker using the right technique when taping prior, during or after a volleyball game.

However, there was some challenges I did face along the way in my placement such as my time management of my placement, my course and my personal health. One of the safety concerns for a therapist if that if they are ill then they should not work and this was the case for me as I struggled to gain as much hours as I would like due to my own health as I was suffering was constant eczema and flu. One way I would deal with this was to make sure if I was ill then I when I was back fully healthy would try and help out in as many areas of the placement as possible to try and gain back the hours. However, this was a constant struggle for me and I believe I could improve in the future by setting out an action plan on how to make sure my personal health is better so that I can fully commit to my placement for as many hours as I can. Another challenge I faced in my placement was my confidence levels as I believe I was quite nervous prior to my placement and this did improve but it did take time. My confidence levels were quite low as I was nervous around some things such as working pitch side and doing musculoskeletal assessment and these skills are important for a sports therapists. However, one I managed to deal with this was to complete a confidence course on MARJON Futures platform which helped give some advice on how to develop my confidence and apply these to the certain areas (Appendix 5).

One requirement of our course is too find your placement yourselves and this means communication and dealing  with external organisations and my Placement was with the MARJON Clinic who help supervise the work placements with the BUCS Volleyball Team. I did learn many things working with the clinic such as the different health and safety procedures they have in place to help if there are certain injuries such as when to call for ambulance in case of an emergency or where the defibrillators. This was important in my placement learning as it gives me an insight in different healthy and safety procedures put in place for a clinic. Another piece of knowledge I learnt dealing with external organisations was that it is important to have constant communication with the supervisor when on placement to help you out with any issues you may have and this was important in the development of certain skills and areas. Another example of what I learnt was the importance of professionalism when working with your supervisor and this is important with graduateness as professionalism will be important when working with clients to show an effective and professional standard of practice.

MARJON had some specific requirements for placement that each student must have to participate in placement. First of all was valid DBS and this is important as it shows that you don’t have any previous convictions and shows that you are safe to work in a placement environment. This was important for some of the therapists as some of them may be working with children and a DBS is essential as it is illegal to work without one. Another requirement which was essential to gain prior to placement was a valid first aid course qualification and this was essential for my workplace placement as you will need to know how to perform certain  procedure in times of emergence. For example, this is important in a therapy setting as you may be required to perform CPR on an individual who is struggling to breath. This document is important in following work place conduct as First Aid can be a matter of life and death and these skills are important as it could save a person’s life. This qualification will help with work place conduct as the qualification did help me develop my First Aid Skills when working pitch side as I can confidently know how to perform CPR if needed.

For my placement I tried to maintain full communication with my placement tutor to help me with any issues which could arise within my placement. However, one of the areas I could of improved was to set out a plan to fully complete my hours as this was not done. I believe I can improve by now communicating online with my tutor to devise a plan for third year to help complete the hours which I did not yet complete. This will be essential as I believe I can still further development my practical and personal skills through placement. One way COVID-19 will now affect my placement and future work is the contact with clients as we are unsure when the reopening of clinics will be and the only way of contact with clients is through online meetings to help progress and advise. Another way the pandemic will affect future work is the development of my practical skills as we are unsure of how long the pandemic will be as we currently still have to maintain a two metre distance and this means we will not be able to perform practical skills such as resisted movements and soft tissue massage. This could affect my degree as practical exams may now switch to online and this will affect my action plan as I believe I can still further develop my practical skills and the pandemic which greatly affect the development of my practical and personal skills.

On the placement I did manage to complete Checklist A from semester A and this was important as it gave the student the essential tools needed to find out important information on the placement such as health and safety procedures and gives the opportunity to make and give copies of important qualifications such as our first aid qualification (Appendix 9). Another reason why checklist A is important as it gives the opportunity to receive feedback through the placement super visor and this is important on the students development on placement. Furthermore, I believe the tasks in checklist A were important in setting out all the essential ground work at the start of your placement such as learning about the different procedures of that work place (Appendix 10). This checklist is important as it gives you the opportunity to discuss plans for future placements with your PDT and highlight what went well and what you improve on and this is important for reflections as you can critically analyse your placement and see how you could improve for future placements. Non completed tasks currently will help to drive with the resumption of normal teaching activities and interactions with your PDT as due to the lockdown interactions with your PDT may be affected and due to the non completion of tasks such as some of those in checklist B it drive you to interact with your PDT to discuss plans on how you will achieve these tasks. For example, I believe I can interact with my PDT to discuss plans on how I may go about of completing some of checklist B’s tasks when we return for 3^rd year.

Analysis of the Action Plan

I believe the Action Plan for me will help drive motivation to complete future employability tasks as due to the lockdown I believe the importance of the plan has increased meaning this will give me more drive to help complete my goals such as the development of my confidence and practical skills (Appendix 8). I will engage with a variety of people to ensure I stick to this. For example, for third year one plan I will use is to ensure I maintain constant contact with my PDT and use to them to critically analyse how I am performing in placement and ways in which I can achieve my goals. Another way I will do this is by engaging with my Placement supervisor as on my next placement I will give them a copy of my action plan and use them to help monitor my progress and take advice on how they would improve developing and achieving my goals for placement. I will make sure I stay on track by monitoring my placement hours with constant reflection each week discussing how I will improve and monitor how close I am to achieving my set plan. Another way I will monitor this is through communication with my PDT is they can give me information and feedback and this will be written down to see how I believe I am progressing through-out placement. I will reflect on my placement through the use of the Gibbs model as I will assess this each placement discussing what I did well and what I did bad and then reflect on this to see what I could of improved then write an action plan to put measures in place to so that if I did do something bad then I can create a plan so that I can overcome that and improve(Appendix 11). For example, I believe my communication wasn’t the best after one of my early placement sessions so I went away and discussed what didn’t go great and why it didn’t go great and identify specifically the areas I could of improved on and for me this was communicating under pressure(Appendix 11). From this I created an action plan to participate in a communication course to make sure I was more prepared when communicating under pressure for future placement sessions. From my original Personal Placement Development Plan I identified development of musculoskeletal assessment skills as area for improvement and I believe I have improved so for my future action plan I believe I could specifically look at improving my musculoskeletal assessment skills just for spine therapy as parts of this area I did find hard to understand and this I believe I could improve on this for my future development plan(Appendix 8).

Reference List

1. Adam, K., Peters. S., Chipchase. L. (2013)., Knowledge, skills and professional behaviours required by occupational therapist and physiotherapist beginning practitioners in work-related practice: A systematic review. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal., Vol 60, Pages 76-84.
2. Bliven, K. C. H., Anderson. B. E. (2013)., Core Stability Training for Injury Prevention. Athletic Training., Vol 5(6), Pages 514-522.

1. Bonsaksen, T., Granå. K. E., Celo. C., Ellingham. B., Myraunet. I. (2013)., A practice placement design facilitating occupational therapy students’ learning. The Journal of Mental Health, Education and Practice., Vol 8(4), Pages 169- 180.

4. Driver, C., Kean. B., Oprescu. F., Lovell. G. P. (2016)., Knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and beliefs of physiotherapists towards the use of psychological interventions in physiotherapy practice: a systematic review. Disability and Rehabilitation., Vol 39(22), Pages 2237-2249.
5. Ezzat, A. M., Maly. M. R. (2012)., Building Passion Develops Meaningful Mentoring Relationships among Canadian Physiotherapists. Physiotherapy Canada., Vol 64(1), Pages 77-85.

1. Farwell, K. E., Powden. C. J., Powell. M. R., McCarty. C. W., Hoch. M. C. (2013)., The Effectiveness of Prophylactic Ankle Braces in Reducing the Incidence of Acute Ankle Injuries in Adolescent Athletes: A Critically Appraised Topic Journal of Sports Rehabilitation., Vol 22, Pages 137-142.

7. Hoffman, M. D., Badowski. N., Chin. J., Stuempfle. K. J. (2016)., A Randomized Controlled Trial of Massage and Pneumatic Compression for Ultramarathon Recovery. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Therapy., Vol 46(5), Pages 320-326.

1. Jackson, D. (2013)., The contribution of work-integrated learning to undergraduate employability skill outcomes. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education., Vol 14(2), Pages 99- 115.

9. Lazarou, L., Kofotolis. N., Pafis. G., Kellis. E. (2017)., Effects of two proprioceptive training programs on ankle range of motion, pain, functional and balance performance in individuals with ankle sprain. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation., Vol 1, Pages 1-10.
10. Peek, K., Carey. M., Sanson-Fisher. R., Mackenzie. L. (2016)., Physiotherapists’ perceptions of patient adherence to prescribed self-management strategies: a cross-sectional survey of Australian physiotherapists. Disability and Rehabilitation., Vol 35(12), Pages 1304-1313.
11. Rao, S., Riskowski. J., Hannan. M. T. (2012)., Musculoskeletal Conditions of the Foot and Ankle: Assessments and Treatment Options. Best Practice and Research. Clinical Rheumatology., Vol 26(3), Pages 345-368.

1. Rowe, A., Winchester-Seeto, T. (2013)., What makes a good student placement: Recognising the importance of people. Selected Research from Learning and Teaching Week., Vol 1, Pages 32- 27.

13. Tiemstra, J. D. (2012)., Update on acute ankle sprains. American Family Physician., Vol 85(12), Pages 1170-1176.

1. Verhagen, E., (2013)., How Fundamental Knowledge Aids Implementation: Ankle Sprains as an Example. Acta Med Port., Vol 26(2), Pages 171-174.

15. Vieira, W. H. B., Aguiar. K. A., Silva. K. M., Canela. P. M., Silva. F. S., Abreu. B. J. (2012)., Overview of ultrasound usage trends in orthopedic and sports physiotherapy. Clinical Ultrasound Journal., Vol 4(11), Pages 1-8.

1. Wilton, N. (2014)., Employability is in the Eye of the Beholder: Employer decision-making in the recruitment of work placement students. Skills, Higher Education and Work Based Learning., Vol 4(3), Pages 242-255.

Appendix

Appendix 1: Sports Therapy Organisation Website

Appendix 2: The Society of Sports Therapist Website

Appendix 3: The GMCT Aims and Objectives on their website

Appendix 4:  Communication Course on MARJON Futures

Appendix 5: Confidence Course on MARJON Futures.

Appendix 6: Time Management Course on MARJON Futures.

Appendix 7: STYDO3 and STYDO4 modules on Learning Space.

Appendix 8: Personal Development Plan Prior to Second Year Placement.

Appendix 9: First Aid Qualification.

Appendix 10: Checklist A

Appendix 11: Gibbs Reflections Model