INITIAL ENTRY - Fremantle Hospital Cardiorespiratory

Fingers crossed, last and final placement. Fremantle Hospital to signify the coming to an end.

At Fremantle hospital I will be undertaking my cardiorespiratory placement. This field of physiotherapy is one I enjoyed at university and found simple to grasp concepts and treatments, therefore I feel confident in my ability to perform well at this placement. As majority of my prior placements have incorporated some element of acute care cardiorespiratory or post surgical rehabilitation, this will hopefully help in my success on this placement.

Fremantle Hospital itself is an older facility, on a small location, though being the only public tertiary hospital south of the river has extremely high demands to meet. With the additional pressure of the four-hour rule, there is added stress on staff, which will undoubtedly be translated to students as well. This could play out two ways, being given a greater degree of independence to share the clinical case load or having a greater degree of supervision to ensure more efficient and quality care.

In terms of the nature of this placement; we have not yet been informed of the specific area of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy that we will be assigned to, whether it be cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, oncology or general surgical, there is great variety in the nature of each of these wards.

The structure however would be similar in that it is largely acute inpatient care where we will be designated patients to treat and assess throughout our placement. It will be my role to integrate into the team, assess and treat the patients I am designated, attend relevant meetings and professional development sessions and assist my supervisor and other staff members in any way possible to improve efficiency and quality of patient care. Meanwhile as a representative of Notre Dame Fremantle and a student looking to be employed as a physiotherapist in the near future, I will act professionally and acknowledge workplace policies and procedures as well as build good working relationships with the staff of Fremantle Hospital.

Prior to commencing this placement I have only a few concerns:

- The impact of the four-hour rule, specifically to cardiorespiratory patients. I found in previous placements, especially Neurology at Royal Perth, that the four-hour rule put added pressure on the emergency department to delegate patients to relevant wards quickly. This then meant that patients were placed wherever there was a free bed and often ended up in units not specialised for their care. Also as many patients have an element of cardiorespiratory, the variety of patient presentations may be overwhelming.

- Fremantle Hospital has featured in my past, and from previous experience, was not a satisfactory hospital with poor facilities, limited resources, mainly staff and a low standard of patient care. I am hoping that since this time, the standards have much improved and that my past experience doesn’t bias my opinion of the placement.

Overall I am excited to be on the home stretch and have my final placement in a field of physiotherapy that I feel confident with.