Apologies for the terrible screenshot. Americans on the main Football sub (Called Soccer) see nothing wrong in it.
Just been at yet another family function where they entirely underestimate the work that physiotherapists do. I am a ICU/Crit care physio, yet they think all I do is sport and that I'm available for their non-descript MSK issue.
This isn't to say I'm some kind of hero because I don't feel like I am, but I tend to save someone's life on a weekly basis, purely based on my role, and I'm sure all physios have their own story regardless of what field they work in. Everyone always mentions Doctors and Nurses but never physios. Time to tell the world or at the very least, tell us your story of when you've intervened as a physio to save someone's life!
I'll start with one story which at first I felt like I'd failed him but in hindsight and upon reflection it was anything but. I was about to see my very poorly patient, and his sats dropped to >40% whilst I was reading his notes. I immediately placed a BVM on his face and started manually breathing for him, calling for help. Nurses and doctors came along, I stayed on the BVM whilst the doctor positioned the patient's neck in order to secure the airway. The consultant who was in charge of their care came along, in the meantime they had taken his bloods multiple times and were starting him on a NIV. He was hypoxic to begin with, but upon further investigation, we had managed to get him out of type 1 resp failure. The NIV was finally in situ and the consultant was happy to leave in order start making calls to his extended family, placing him on palliative care.
So where did I fail him? He passed away 12 hours later, I naturally thought how could I have, and should I have done more? But I soon realised those 12 hours allowed his family to make the journey to visit him and say their final goodbyes, giving them the closure they may not have had if I wasn't there in that moment. I had almost internalised the mindset that physios are just physios (or the enemy), there to make patients unhappy, being a nuisance by getting them up and moving or clearing their airway and therefore, couldn't allow myself to feel as though I had a significant impact on their final moments.
That's the type of thing physios do on a daily basis that people just simply don't appreciate or expect them to do. The general public's understanding of what physios do is so incredibly out of touch that it's frustrating when it comes to having conversations with those who are entirely ignorant of what we do.
I don't want to start patting ourselves on the back or anything like that, but it's about time we start to educate people on the breadth of what physiotherapists cover, especially when - at least in my country - physios are starting to take a more active role when it comes to diagnosis in primary care (GPs) and taking a more important role on wards (through Advanced Practitioner roles).
Just been at yet another family function where they entirely underestimate the work that physiotherapists do. I am a ICU/Crit care physio, yet they think all I do is sport and that I'm available for their non-descript MSK issue.
This isn't to say I'm some kind of hero because I don't feel like I am, but I tend to save someone's life on a weekly basis, purely based on my role, and I'm sure all physios have their own story regardless of what field they work in. Everyone always mentions Doctors and Nurses but never physios. Time to tell the world or at the very least, tell us your story of when you've intervened as a physio to save someone's life!
I'll start with one story which at first I felt like I'd failed him but in hindsight and upon reflection it was anything but. I was about to see my very poorly patient, and his sats dropped to >40% whilst I was reading his notes. I immediately placed a BVM on his face and started manually breathing for him, calling for help. Nurses and doctors came along, I stayed on the BVM whilst the doctor positioned the patient's neck in order to secure the airway. The consultant who was in charge of their care came along, in the meantime they had taken his bloods multiple times and were starting him on a NIV. He was hypoxic to begin with, but upon further investigation, we had managed to get him out of type 1 resp failure. The NIV was finally in situ and the consultant was happy to leave in order start making calls to his extended family, placing him on palliative care.
So where did I fail him? He passed away 12 hours later, I naturally thought how could I have, and should I have done more? But I soon realised those 12 hours allowed his family to make the journey to visit him and say their final goodbyes, giving them the closure they may not have had if I wasn't there in that moment. I had almost internalised the mindset that physios are just physios (or the enemy), there to make patients unhappy, being a nuisance by getting them up and moving or clearing their airway and therefore, couldn't allow myself to feel as though I had a significant impact on their final moments.
That's the type of thing physios do on a daily basis that people just simply don't appreciate or expect them to do. The general public's understanding of what physios do is so incredibly out of touch that it's frustrating when it comes to having conversations with those who are entirely ignorant of what we do.
I don't want to start patting ourselves on the back or anything like that, but it's about time we start to educate people on the breadth of what physiotherapists cover, especially when - at least in my country - physios are starting to take a more active role when it comes to diagnosis in primary care (GPs) and taking a more important role on wards (through Advanced Practitioner roles).