Last week afforded me a unique opportunity; a colleague of mine, Jen Bladon, organized a job shadow at Newmarket’s Southlake Regional Health Care Centre.
Jen Bladon is a registered physiotherapist who works at Southlake Regional Health Care Centre as well as at York Rehab (http://www.yorkrehab.com/). One of her responsibilities while at Southlake is to aid Dr. John Randle, Orthopaedic Surgeon during the post-operative follow-ups.
This past Thursday I had the opportunity to follow Jen and Dr. Randle throughout their post-operative follow-ups. This gave me further insight into what they deem important at the various stages of recovery after different procedures, as well as greater knowledge of the procedures themselves. I was able to observe Jen as she assessed and further progressed individual’s exercises, and listen in on Dr. Randle as he explained to the patient how the procedure was performed and what the patient’s expectations should be moving forward. The atmosphere can be best described as “organized chaos” with a large amount of patients to be seen in a short period of time, but with help of volunteers, Dr. Randle and the physiotherapists are able to work efficiently, answering the patients questions and not at all seeming rushed.
As with all learning opportunities, I feel that this experience will help me deal with my own caseload. I do often see patients that have been to Dr. Randle for a shoulder procedure, so knowing more about the procedure and the key signs that he and Jen look for, will allow me to be more focused during my patient’s rehabilitation.