Introduction:
I Performed two placements, the first was at Plymouth Marjon Sport and health clinic working all the universities BUC’s teams most commonly Marjon Women’s Rugby team providing sports rehabilitation and Pre, Post and pitch-side treatment to the players this included attending training sessions and games providing warm-ups, cool downs and also clinical sessions for any players that were injured or required preventative treatment. The purpose of this placement is to ensure any players that are injured get the treatment they require and return to play as soon as possible. The status of this organization is the public sector as it is a public educational body within higher education (Bouckaert, Peters & Verhoest (2016).
The second placement I have been completing was with Plymouth Argaum Men’s Rugby team which is a rugby team open to the public and I provided pitch side treatment to players that required it as well as attending training session and training clinics to provide rehabilitation exercises, programs and treatments working with players of the team. The aim and purpose of this placement included working with the team to ensure that all players have the treatment they require as well as putting in place preventative measures such as warm-up and cooldowns. The status of this organization is voluntary (charity) as a social activity is undertaken, it is non-governmental and a non-profit organization its goal is to include the community and ensure safety to players while playing rugby. All staff are volunteers and work off of fundraising events and community funds (Ringuet-Riot, Cuskelly, Auld & Zakus (2014).

Aims of placement:

During my placement experience, I set out the same four goals for each organization:

• 1. Complete all hours required of the module required
• 2. To turn up pitchside to every game possible unless a given valid reason or sickness
• 3. To turn up twice a week for pre-training treatment sessions
• 4. Record injuries that occur during games and training sessions to help with the dissertation.

I aim to achieve these goals to help me gain experience in the profession, to help me progress through my personal professional development plan (PPDP, found in Appendix), and increase my ability to utilize the degree I am studying. Achieving these goals and my placement module will help me work towards my long-term goals, short-term goals and medium-term goals in my PPDP such as;

• • Completing my degree with a 2:1 grade or higher by 2021.
• • Completing all clinical and pitch-side hours for the RISD90 module.
• • Secure a post-graduate job within sports rehabilitation.

My role within both organizations is a sports rehabilitation therapist, working with the players of both teams’ pitchside, training session, and in a clinical setting. My responsibility is to provide treatment to the players based on what I have been taught during my university degree so far such as emergency trauma, immediate first aid, rehabilitation, prehabilitation, massage treatments, taping treatments, and many more. I work under a more experienced supervisor who will help me to develop my knowledge, gain experience within the field, and identify my strengths and weaknesses for further development.

Overview of Marjon Women’s Rugby Placement:

During the placement module, I completed 31 hours of clinical and pitch-side placement with Plymouth Marjon Universities Women’s Rugby team where I provided treatment to any players that required it. Throughout the seven-month period that I worked with this team, I had a variety of different strengths and weaknesses.
Through undergoing this placement my knowledge of the sport, associated injuries, and rehabilitation/preventative exercises has majorly increased. I feel when I started this placement, I was relying heavily on more experienced therapists to guide me through. For example, in a reflective blog post (Placement- Women’s Rugby- 1.5hrs- Pregame- 20/11/19) I stated how an area for improvement would be my knowledge of stretching techniques as I was unaware at the time of how to stretch the glutes of a player and had to be shown by one of the third years. My aim as a result of this session was to research different stretching techniques so I would be able to provide my clients with treatment based on my own knowledge without having to ask anyone else for assistance. However, by 13/01/2020 I stated in the blog post (Marjon Women’s Pitchside- Training- 13/01/2020- 2 hours) that a player was experiencing pain and I managed to provide pitch-side treatment using the MET technique of isometrically contracting of the hamstring muscle followed by stretching o that same muscle group using the straight leg raise (SLR) based of the information I had been revising, I was able to turn this weakness into a strength. This is also a strength that my placement supervisor had identified when providing my summative assessment feedback at the end of the placement where they stated they were impressed with how I have applied myself to gain underpinning knowledge.
At first, I struggled massively with my confidence as you can see in the blog post (Marjon Women’s Pitchside- Training- 13/01/2020- 2hours) I stated that an area for improvement would be confident as this was my first training session with the team. I lacked confidence in another training session later on in the year where I stated in the blog post (24/02/2020- Marjon Women’s Rugby- Pitchside Training- 2hrs) that to overcome this I needed to put myself out of my comfort zone take the session. By the final training session, I had with this team stated in a blog post (02/03/2020- Marjon Women’s rugby- Pitchside training-2hrs), I provided a warm-up and felt confident throughout the training session even though I allowed the third year to assist me with the initial assessment of an injured player I was confident in my own competency and provided the pitch side treatment for this player correctly and efficiently. It was also stated by my placement supervisor that competency/ confidence was a weakness of mine throughout the first three months of this placement stated in the formative assessment feedback however, this also developed into a strength as my placement progressed. It did take a while for me to feel confident in my own abilities however, by the end of the placement it showed.
Communication, I feel has been a strength consistently through my placement not only during Marjon Women’s but through Argaum men’s also. On and off the pitch iI believe it is important to express good communication skills especially during an emergency situation where first aid is required. This is a skill that I learned throughout my placement experience knowing the correct hand signals to call on another therapist or supervisor to alert them on the severity of a casualty as well and calmly passing on information about the incident. I have not had any issues during this experience with expressing my opinion of a situation, asking for help or assistance to develop my knowledge and feel I have used my communication skills to the best of my ability to make the most out of both of my placements. This has also been identified as a strength by my placement supervisor at Marjon Women’s rugby team as they stated that my “ability to communicate either verbally and or written/ alternative means of communication is exemplary” which I am proud to have received this feedback and it also to reflect what I feel my own strengths are.
Commitment to the team was for me was my biggest weakness. Although my placement supervisor highlighted my ability to multitask through the two placements, playing for a sports team and other personal commitments as a strength, I felt it was difficult to commit fully to this team and show my full potential. As evidenced in my hour’s log, I completed nearly three times the number of hours with Argaum men’s rugby club due to less clashing of events with weekend games than I did with Marjon Women’s rugby. Moving into the third year I will assess my priorities and reduce my playing time with my team achieved through stepping down as captain to relieve stresses placed on me from the team and to ensure I am committed as a Bucs therapist and to my role as a sports rehabilitator in my final year at the university.

Overview of Argaum Men’s Rugby placement:

During my placement at Plymouth Argaum Men’s rugby team, I completed 84 hours of which 69 will go towards my 100 placement hours with the 31 from Plymouth Marjon Women’s Rugby. The remaining 15 will go towards my pitchside module for next year.
I had a lot of strengths and weaknesses throughout my time at the club some of the most common ones included;
As stated by my supervisors at Argaum, clinical practice is a strength of mine. I feel that while being at the placement I have been able to adapt to my surroundings and use the limited amount of equipment to the best of my ability. At first, as stated in the blog post (Argaum Placement-07/11/19-1.5hrs) my knowledge of assessment and spotting signs and symptoms of different pathologies was an area for improvement. During this session, I stated that I would revise different injuries and learn the signs and symptoms to help give me an advantage and improve clinically. Since this session, I have managed to revise as stated and it has been highlighted by my supervisors at Argaum that working clinically is a strength of mine. Getting this kind of feedback from a supervisor is rewarding as the hard work I have put in to improve myself as a therapist has paid off and not gone unnoticed by others. To ensure that I keep this as a strength moving forward with my placement into the third year, I plan to keep revisiting this information to ensure that I keep a good basic knowledge of anatomy and physiology which was also highlighted as a strength by my supervisor.
During my placement, it has not gone unnoticed the effort I put in when dealing with clients with regards to my enthusiasm, calmness, and willingness to learn and adapt from mistakes that I make. Although it has been highlighted as a strength, this can only be continued further to ensure the perfect “bedside manner” is used when treating clients. A way of improving upon this would be to ensure I am organized and prepared before each client ensuring I have the correct equipment set out for each client such as couch roll on the bed, lotion nearby, wipes, and cleaning products in the treatment room for efficient post-treatment clean. This can be achieved through further practice and getting into the habit of having the correct equipment. This could also be achieved by having allocated places for equipment in the treatment room that allows me quick, efficient access to them. I feel as though this is not strength nor weakness, however, something that can only be improved or adapted when finding special awareness in my treatment room and can be achieved through trial and error during treatments to figure out what works best for me in my practice.
Confidence has been a continuous weakness for me throughout both placements, not only have I doubted my own ability level, but both of my placement supervisors have mentioned that they can see the knowledge and ability is present. In a clinical environment, I am able to display a high level of knowledge and application of treatment however, when pitchside self-doubt begins to set in. I feel that this is because of the new situational environment that I am experiencing through second-year placement. In the first year, all hours were gained through clinical work and therefore that is where my comfort zone lies. When pitchside there is a fear of the unknown, that injuries are unpredictable and can range from basic first aid to emergency trauma and I begin to doubt my ability to fill the needs of the situation. To improve upon this moving into third-year placement all I can do is continue to put myself in this pitch side environment until I become comfortable in managing myself confidently. This is what I did with clinical situations during the first year and it paid off. This will take time but through the enjoyment of the areas I am studying in, I feel I am motivated, determined, and enthusiastic enough to overcome this weakness and turn it into a strength throughout my degree.

Conclusion:
I feel like an overall total, Plymouth Marjon Women’s rugby team was an extremely beneficial placement to developing my experience and knowledge of my role as a sports rehabilitator. This placement provided me with continued development and learning of emergency trauma techniques and situations, a professional clinical environment to work in, and followed similar procedures to how I have been taught throughout my degree. Working within the university has its positives and negatives, although I was able to achieve all my goals and it having a positive effect on my placement experience, being a familiar environment kept me in my comfort zone the majority of the time which is why I felt it was extremely beneficial to work externally with Plymouth Argaum. Plymouth Argaum helped me to develop my knowledge clinically, gain experience pitchside, and achieve my goals. It was difficult to adapt at first to their way of operating. However, having to adapt my knowledge and application of treatment at Argaum was a massive benefit as it taught me how to develop myself and my practice away from the flow of the university which will be beneficial once I have graduated and have to work with different organizations and develop my own way of operating that works best for me.
Through working closely with the supervisors at Argaum and Marjon, I was able to achieve my aims and outcomes set at the beginning of the year. Throughout both placements, I have been able to complete and exceed all 100 hours expected of me for this module. I have been attending all and every training session that I can unless providing a given reason or illness as to not attend more so with Plymouth Argaum than with Plymouth Marjon. Due to the two evening training sessions a week and weekend games at Plymouth Argaum I have been able to achieve outcome number 3 of attending two training sessions a week and games when possible. Finally, I have managed to record a large number of injuries from both teams that will allow me to complete part of my dissertation for the third year.
When beginning placement in the third year, I will be able to set new goals based on further developments suggested by placement supervisors, for example, future development goal may include:

• • To achieve all clinical and pitch-side hours required of me for the year.
• • Complete the suggested RFU pre-hospital intermediate care in sports trauma qualification.
• • Learn how to correctly perform ABCDE.
• • Complete and inventory list for my pitch side bag.
• • Engage in relevant CPD events and critical discussions.
• Continue to develop the pitchside experience to increase confidence and situational awareness

Reference list and blog links:

1. Blog link 1: Placement- Women’s Rugby- 1.5hrs- Pregame- 20/11/19- https://sites.marjon.ac.uk/nwayne/2019/12/18/placement-womens-rugby-1-5hrs-pregame/
2. Blog link 2 and 3: Marjon Women’s Pitchside- Training- 13/01/2020- 2 hours-https://sites.marjon.ac.uk/nwayne/2020/02/10/marjon-women’s-pitchside-training-13-01-2020-2-hours/
3. Blog link 4: 24/02/2020- Marjon Women’s Rugby- Pitchside training-2hrs https://sites.marjon.ac.uk/nwayne/2020/04/27/24-02-2020-marjon-womens-rugby-pitchside-training-2hrs/
4. Blog link 5: 02/03/2020- Marjon Women’s Rugby- Pitchside Training- 2hrs- https://sites.marjon.ac.uk/nwayne/2020/04/27/02-03-2020-marjon-womens-rugby-pitchside-training-2hrs/
5. Blog link 6- Argaum placement-07/11/19-1.5hrs https://sites.marjon.ac.uk/nwayne/2020/02/06/argaum-placement-07-11-19-1-5hrs/
6. Bouckaert, G., Peters, B. G., & Verhoest, K. (2016). Coordination of public sector organizations. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
7. Ringuet-Riot, C., Cuskelly, G., Auld, C., & Zakus, D. H. (2014). Volunteer roles, involvement and commitment in voluntary sport organizations: Evidence of core and peripheral volunteers. Sport in Society, 17(1), 116-133.