Jessica Norris

This episode, we are delighted to be joined by special guest host Sam Ravenall who is the Foundation to Health Sciences programme lead as well as Jessica Norris who started her student journey on the Foundation year and who has just completed her Physiotherapy BSc.

The foundation year provides students with an alternative route into the Physiotherapy BSc. In this podcast, Jessica shares her experience of studying a Foundation Year during the height of the pandemic and how it prepared her for studying on the degree.

Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

so

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Hello and welcome to It's Not Just Physio podcast today. So you can probably tell that I'm not your usual host James. My name is Sam Ravenor and I'm an assistant professor within the School of Health Science and James has entrusted the podcast in my hopefully capable hands today. So if you've been listening to the podcast before then you'll know it's designed for listeners to get to know about our wonderful students within the School of Health Science at the University of Nottingham. But if you're new then hopefully you'll be able to find out something about what goes on within the School of Health Science within the University of Nottingham. Today then I am delighted to be able to welcome Jess Norris.

UNKNOWN: 0:48

Hello.

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

So have you ever been on a podcast before? No I haven't actually so first time for everything. Yeah me

SPEAKER_02: 0:54

too. Yeah how are you

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

feeling?

SPEAKER_02: 0:58

Yeah good excited to to share experiences and yeah. Okay

SPEAKER_00: 1:02

good. So our paths we know each other and spoiler alert and our paths haven't crossed for a couple of years but before we talk a little bit more about about how we know each other, then it would just be really nice if you can just tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15

Yeah, so obviously I'm Jess. I'm currently, well, I've just finished the physiotherapy BSc. We finished placement a couple of days ago. From sort of sixth form and A levels, I transferred and went the Foundation in Health Sciences route and then came on to the three-year degree. So I've actually done four years at the University of Nottingham. So yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 1:35

it's been great. That's cool. So what is it you like about Nottingham? Why... Well, no, let's go back a step. So why physio? What was it that made you want to do physio?

SPEAKER_02: 1:45

So I think from my point of view, I've always been a massive sports geek. And if you can call it that, I say very into rugby and did quite a lot of sport during my sort of school and sixth form years. I particularly like rugby, but had an injury. So I sprained my sacroiliac joint twice in three days. So I couldn't go that sort of playing the sport. I wouldn't say athlete, but like playing the sport route so I thought why not go and look at sort of coaching and management route so I found sort of physiotherapy through that I think in school I wasn't discouraged but a lot of people sort of advised me to maybe not going into interviews to not say you want to go into sport simply because of how competitive it is it could limit you so I think from there it made me explore my options a bit more in terms of the scope of physiotherapy so I'm from Portsmouth so back at home I looked at sort of different private businesses I kind contacted some of the NHS trusts at home and did like a week's work experience in a centre for conductive therapy. I did a day in all the different sort of clinical areas in a local hospital to me. So it kind of broadened my understanding of the job role and sort of career routes from there. And yeah, I think that's kind of been my route into physio, as it were. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04

And that must have been really useful. Yeah, definitely. In terms of, yeah, just giving you a really... wide range of ideas about where you might end up at the end of your degree

SPEAKER_02: 3:16

and I think from I think our school was very much pushing for sort of women in STEM and that route of things so it was kind of nice to explore I wouldn't say I was late in deciding that I wanted to go down this career path but I think it was probably around my GCSE stage where you're being told that GCSEs can affect sometimes your university application so that's when I started thinking of okay what do I want to do in the future and yeah where do I want things to go yeah so what A-levels did you was it A-levels yeah A-levels so I stayed on at my school for sixth form so I did oh PE because at the time I don't know if it's opened up more but every universe well a lot of the universities I looked at took PE over biology except at the time it was Cardiff and Southampton Southampton was a bit too close to home for me so I went the PE route so I continued it for GCSEs and then I did business A level geography A level and an EPQ so not everyone covers that but it's an extended project qualification so it's like a mini dissertation it's 5,000 words on a topic of your choice and I think I did it on women in sport I think so yeah that's the route I went. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 4:33

And just tell me a little bit about Nottingham so you mentioned that you didn't want to stay well you didn't want to move from Portsmouth to Southampton so they're really close to each other aren't they? So what attracted you to Nottingham?

SPEAKER_02: 4:44

I think for me it was trying to get into the radius of something that's far enough from home that you've got independence and I'm an only child as well so I was like it's kind of going outside my comfort zone but also you're still close enough that if you wanted to go back for sort of a day trip or your parents needed to help you move up to uni you could in theory do it in a day so it's about a four hour trip there so it's quite long but With regards to Nottingham, I looked around universities that were only sort of campus unis because I wanted that sort of community feel to things. And I think everyone says this, that when you just step into a university, you just know it's the right one for you. Nottingham was the fourth or fifth uni I'd looked around. And as soon as mum and I came here, I was like, this is the one. And for those who like that social side of things, I've not heard someone not say that Nottingham isn't good for a social life and a night out if that's your thing but also you've got the Peak District right on your doorstep, you've got thousands of parks and water sports centres and so it's kind of got something for everyone and it's yeah it's a good hub to also get to the coast if you wanted to. And have you played rugby while you've been here? No I haven't, I haven't. I think it was quite tough because I joined uni in September 2020. I was sort of doing a sport back at home and then because of Covid I think when I joined it was sort of clubs and societies weren't what they previously were because they weren't necessarily able to sort of be in person all the time because of social distancing and I mean I was a member at David Ross and it was very strict in terms of there could be like five or six people in a session going to the gym and you only had an hour so it it kind of stopped me from continuing my sports which I've sort of tried to pick pick back up from but yeah it's been different i think a lot of things have changed since sort of starting with covid but yeah

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

okay so you mentioned that you did a foundation year here and um like i said that's that's how we know each other so do you want to tell me a little bit about because obviously you did a level yeah yeah um so yeah tell me why a foundation year and why here

SPEAKER_02: 7:06

so um yeah as i said sort of looked around your i think it's four or five university choices you can put down on UCAS so I looked at all of those for physio and had sort of some interviews and then it wasn't I got my predicted A levels obviously we were the year that with Covid we were downgraded and my marks actually weren't downgraded but obviously they were all reversed anyway so I got my predicted A level grades for physio but I had sort of a really tough year GCSE time I still passed all of my two sissies but I think my maths was sort of one under the requirement for Nottingham so it was the first year obviously of the foundation in health sciences and that kind of became an option through sort of exploring things and then having spoken to mum and family about it we thought it would be quite a good route to possibly have another year outside of Covid hopefully so you would have a year of normal teaching if you can sort of put it that way and I think also because we were that year that of a levels where we just stopped in the march and there was there was no input i know every sixth form in school handed it hand or college handled it differently and and we still had to check in every day and things but our teaching didn't necessarily continue so for me when i did pe we hadn't particularly touched on sort of cardiovascular system respiratory systems they were in the later part of the year so i stopped in the march and i hadn't really necessarily covered much that would lead me on to physio So I thought the foundation year would be a really good bridge into sort of improving my knowledge and awareness of what's to come.

SPEAKER_03: 8:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:48

Okay. So what did you study on your foundation year then? So obviously you said that you kind of missed a chunk of biology. So did the foundation year

SPEAKER_02: 8:59

fill those gaps for you? Yeah. So I think one of our modules in the first part was obviously that pathophysiology side of things. And with me not having done biology there, obviously that was another good stepping stone. and what works really well is the sort of continuation of your or continuing professional development module and personal and professional development that will start in your foundation year and run the entire course of your physio so you get used to sort of having to do that wider self-directed learning um and those sort of looking at those wider resources um alongside sort of pathophysiology just the general sort of cardiovascular systems as i mentioned kind covering those topics I really felt like I stepped up from that A level and sixth form experience to becoming a uni student I think at sixth form it was a very small sixth form I think I had two people in my business class my biggest class was six in geography so you are very nurtured and yeah just kind of handheld almost and then coming to uni if you haven't gone to college it's a big stepping stone so it it made my essay writing and that sort of independence there was a massive step up even sort of mum having helped or like looked at proofread my essays it's yeah it was definitely noticeable and helping in those writing skills as well

SPEAKER_00: 10:22

okay

SPEAKER_02: 10:23

that's good

SPEAKER_00: 10:24

okay you talked about the professional and personal development module um and there was how many biology modules three four yeah yeah so somewhere in that ballpark yeah

SPEAKER_02: 10:38

what else did you study do

SPEAKER_00: 10:39

you

SPEAKER_02: 10:40

remember? I know we did sort of health promotion and that was really good to look at at that stage as well because that definitely comes into especially in year three of your course and on placements as well that's a sort of looking at wider health inequalities and health promotion that's a big thing I'm trying to think what else Foundation in Biosciences obviously but yeah and I think having those we were obviously also put into peer mentor groups as well obviously Sam you are my mentor and that was really beneficial official because because we were all for the most part taught online um we weren't necessarily seeing people on our course i think we had that introduction module in person socially distanced and things in our first week and that was nice to sort of see everyone's faces behind masks as it were but otherwise you were on teams for sort of the whole year um apart from we had a lab in person actually

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

that was good fun that was really fun yeah i do remember that

SPEAKER_02: 11:33

yeah um i think i still got my photos my results yeah um so yeah that was good but it was it's nice to just know that you had that connection over the phone almost. And even meeting people on those first day, like my, one of my best friends now who went on to do sport rehabs fed into that, well, she's my best friend now. And I met her on the first day of the introduction. So, and I actually live with two, well, live with one of the other physios who was on the foundation, yeah. So it's, yeah, it's worked really, really nicely.

SPEAKER_00: 12:00

Yeah, that's really nice. Yeah. Being able to carry those, meet those people and carry those friendships on through the four years.

SPEAKER_02: 12:07

Also, you've kind of shared something that is very unique and wasn't necessarily the easiest having been to uni during COVID. I think it was hard already being at uni and obviously COVID happening, but then joining university in September. I think that was a bit of a shock to how restrictions and everything was handled on campus as well because it was isolating for a lot of people, especially when sort of one corridor went down with COVID. I mean, you could only socialise with those six, seven people and you were sort find on the spot if you weren't wearing a mask around halls so it it was isolating but having that community that you knew was there was yeah it was really nice

SPEAKER_03: 12:46

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 12:46

yeah and it was yeah it was a difficult year yes it was a difficult year for you guys yeah for us as a teaching team so um so my job is to run the foundation and i teach on the biology modules but for us it was our first year of running the whole course um so yeah and then to have to do that online yeah and try and think of ways to help you you guys settle and yeah not meet each other in person but try and you know form those connections online through I mean what did we use teams didn't we

SPEAKER_02: 13:18

yeah was there a lot of change between obviously you guys having like produced and sort of and created the course for like the few years prior and then having done the course and obviously covid hitting was there a lot of like last minute like adaptations if you like

SPEAKER_00: 13:35

yeah so I mean I started in the so that you were the first year yeah yeah um and i started in the when was it you

SPEAKER_01: 13:43

started yeah it was the may i think

SPEAKER_00: 13:46

yeah so i started in may 2020 yeah so a couple of months after lockdown

SPEAKER_01: 13:50

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 13:51

um so everything was planned to be online but there was a scrabble

SPEAKER_01: 13:55

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

it's like how are we going to do that yeah so i remember there was a lot of obviously we did it all on teams yeah and we put lots of things on the moodle

SPEAKER_02: 14:04

yeah definitely

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

um and there was lots of breakout rooms oh do you remember that

SPEAKER_02: 14:08

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

that's a bit odd Trying to get you to talk to each other. And

SPEAKER_02: 14:12

I think there's a lot of cahoots as well. Yes, lots of quizzes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:16

And I do remember at the end of the year, so maybe kind of May, April, May time, restrictions were relaxed a little bit, weren't they? Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 14:23

because we had like leaving drinks and things like that as well. Yeah, that was lovely. Yeah. Nice to see people's faces.

SPEAKER_00: 14:29

That's it. And that was so bizarre. Yeah, it was very odd.

SPEAKER_02: 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:32

After seeing, just seeing a photo, whatever your photo was on Teams. Because not everyone

SPEAKER_02: 14:37

had their cameras on on Teams either. No. much like I don't know these people yeah

SPEAKER_00: 14:41

I know

SPEAKER_02: 14:42

what was your route obviously joining in May were you sort of on the academic pathway if you like before that at the uni or were you sort of from a different background of teaching and things

SPEAKER_00: 14:53

yeah so I came from further education yeah so I'm not a clinician so I've not been trained as a physio or a nurse so my background is biology yeah so yeah if we go way back so I did my GC well I say my GCSEs. It wasn't GCSEs then. It was O levels. And maths was a thing for me as well. I had to retake my maths. It's not the easiest. No. And then I had to retake my A levels. So I always wanted to do science and kind of flitted around a little bit as to which area of science I wanted to do. And at some point I decided that I wanted to do forensic pathology, but I needed a medical degree to do that. I'd love to

SPEAKER_03: 15:37

do

SPEAKER_00: 15:37

that.

UNKNOWN: 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:38

So I didn't get the grades for medicine. So literally that summer I kind of went through a book because I didn't have online then. So I kind of went through and decided that a pharmacology degree sounded really interesting. So looking at how drugs interact with cells. And then I thought that might lead into forensic science, you know. So yes, I did a degree in biology. pharmacology and toxicology. And then did a master's in forensic science, which was really good fun. I would have loved to have done that. CSI. And again, that thing of having a really small group was really nice. So there was only a handful of us doing it. So everybody got to know each other really well. And that was really, really nice. You learn

SPEAKER_01: 16:23

better like that as well, don't you?

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

And then ended up, well not ended up, then went into research. So I worked as a research assistant and did my PhD. And then very random, well, yeah, kind of randomly went into teaching. So moved into further education, teaching, taught on BTEC, taught on an access to higher education programme for mature students. And then the job came up here to run the foundation programme. And so I thought, oh, that sounds like it would be fun. And so applied and then was really lucky I got offered the job. Brilliant. And then COVID. But yeah, I mean, a lot of the resources that were created were kind of transferable. So obviously, the presentations and a lot of the online resources that were created for you guys have kind of been used or adapted since. But yeah, it was a very intense few months. And it would have been anyway, I think just getting everything ready.

SPEAKER_01: 17:28

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 17:29

just having to consider how we could try and do group work and and try and do quizzes and that kind of thing, but in an online forum so that you won't all... I think it worked well.

SPEAKER_03: 17:39

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 17:43

So you mentioned, obviously, that you've got friends that you still see that you met on Foundation, which is really lovely. And how do you think it kind of prepared you academically for the degree? Because the whole point of the programme is to kind of fill in some of those gaps. So you were saying with your biology and some students come who've not done PE or biology, A level or BTEC at all.

SPEAKER_01: 18:07

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00: 18:09

So it's about us getting them ready for the first year of the degree. So

SPEAKER_02: 18:13

how do you, how,

SPEAKER_00: 18:14

yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 18:15

did we do a good job? Yeah, no, definitely. As I obviously mentioned, it was hard during COVID, but those subjects really fed well onto the course. And also, I mean, it's kind of not necessarily subject, but academically in terms of lecturers, obviously, if you do, I think it's the middle witchery route obviously Maria teaches or is it nursing teaches on on that side of things and then obviously we have Zoe in charge of our placements and I've had sort of contact with Zoe visiting me I think it's been my last four placements so that's been really lovely because she's seen my whole progression and yeah I think if you're coming from a background that isn't A levels or the sort of the route that I came maybe it does prepare you really well because it just gives you sort of an insight into some of the things that may be taught on your first year some things didn't necessarily cross over but the wider understanding it really related to so obviously as I mentioned our we have a pathophysiology module in our first year that linked really well to sort of um foundation of biosciences and things um and just your wider um maybe sort of anatomy and physiology perspective that is I know the course has changed from me um and the sort of the year that I'm in this new intake and the second years are on a different syllabus but for us our anatomy was taught in those first and second years so it fed really nicely that it was still fresh in your head obviously you can kind of keep up with things over the summer when you go on to the degree but yeah it worked really well and that's the other thing also to mention is that with the foundation year obviously there is a pass mark and it is competitive and when we were obviously if you're in halls in first year you are working really really hard in that in that first year and other people's may not necessarily contribute to their degree so I think even though it's hard at the time knuckling down and knowing that it's gonna transfer well and do you really well in the long run you just have to remind yourself when you're in that moment because it is harder even on the physio degree doing more nine to fives during the week whereas some people may study subjects that are a little less sort of face-to-face contact I think that's hard but once you get used to it it's yeah it's absolutely fine.

SPEAKER_00: 20:37

So yeah so obviously for foundation you need to achieve a certain grade so that you can progress on to the degree. 60% pass mark

SPEAKER_03: 20:46

yeah yeah

SPEAKER_00: 20:47

but that's really interesting that obviously you can't just come and kind of party or socialise for that first year because there is that yeah that pressure to achieve that grade. Definitely

SPEAKER_02: 20:57

and I think because our I know you said it sort of changed slightly but like our exams were throughout the whole year I think from that first first Christmas we had our first exam I think so yeah it's it's hard when you've got it throughout the year because you you see people out and obviously if you're in halls it can be a bit noisy sometimes um but yeah if you knuckle down and you know that you need to get that 60% at the end of the year um obviously we had to sort of re-interview as well to get onto the degree um but yeah

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

it's fine once you're on it yeah good okay so favorite memories of foundation year then is there anything that comes to

SPEAKER_03: 21:31

mind

SPEAKER_02: 21:32

um I really loved the labs I think because it was our sort of main probably in-person teaching it was just really different and to kind of be in in the med school obviously it was the first time we'd been in um it gave you a taste of where you were for for your degree and that actually really helped even though we came here a few times in in the first week or couple of months of doing the physio degree we knew where we were going and I think probably went to our heads but it it just took the nerves out of it um so that was lovely um but yeah I I think the labs and obviously the end of year drinks. It was lovely to actually see everyone in person. Obviously, if you did the degree not during COVID, there would be plenty more face-to-face experiences and things. But yeah, it was the little things of just doing quizzes and thrashing everyone at Kuhu was probably a key

SPEAKER_00: 22:19

memory. I can sense this competitive edge in you. I'm very competitive. So apart from the obvious challenge, which was COVID, was there anything else that kind of of sticks in your mind during your foundation year that was tricky or?

SPEAKER_02: 22:37

I think probably the biggest one was having to bring it into view for the degree. I think when we were, because obviously we were that first year, we knew that we had to get the 60% pass mark, but I don't think with everything else going on, it kind of dawned that we would, I think a lot of us were just under the impression that we'd get the 60 and then we'd kind of just flew through on it. to the degree we weren't necessarily knew that we had to interview and then obviously throughout the year that became sort of more known to us and I was the first one out of the foundation year to interview for physio I can't actually remember who interviewed me I think it was Ed and I'm trying to think I had a female lecturer as well but I can't remember who it was but it was really lovely actually it was a sort of mine was more of a conversation and obviously I kind of indicate to them that I was on the foundation year I was actually sort of staying on campus um but I wasn't an A-level student and we had a really nice chat about that um I know obviously for some people following me they had more in-depth physio questions and things but mine was a really lovely really lovely interview actually um and I was over the moon when I found out that I am I think I was in floods of titters because I worked so hard during that year and it's all just paid off and yeah and yeah you can breathe a bit more now yeah yeah I think that was probably the hardest thing though and obviously outside of foundation year it was more just general being on a uni campus during covid was yeah was tricky yeah of course yeah

SPEAKER_00: 24:09

yeah so what kind of skills so obviously we talked about the biology and you talked a little bit about personal professional development so what kind of what we would call transferable skills so things that you kind of pick up almost without realising yeah but then are really useful as you go into your degree and then obviously yeah skills you get on your degree that they're really useful when you go into work

SPEAKER_02: 24:30

uh i think the biggest one for me has always been excuse me like communication you really need to hone in on what your strengths are and I think that the foundation is a really good place to do that to prep you to going on to the degree because although you don't start clinical placements until your second year it's very much in terms of the marking scheme and what educators are expecting of you to identify your own strengths and weaknesses and your transferable skills and obviously it does come up in essays as well so for me communication whether that be verbal non-verbal and those sort of wider interpersonal skills were brought through as I said in personal professional development and CPD and I've since then been able to expand them through placements through I mean it could be in modules and lectures obviously getting to know different people kind of collaborative working with obviously we're taught with the support rehabbers as well that's really beneficial and I think it's something we don't actually cover in foundation year but obviously your wider things that would lead into placements, like your note writing skills and your manual handling. Obviously, we didn't cover that because of COVID. But yeah, those sorts of more practical elements are really good.

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

Okay. So you talked about placements and obviously you talked about communication skills. Give me an example of, I don't know, a communication example. Yeah, of something that's worked really well on placement that might give students you know an idea of the kind of things they might come up against I feel

SPEAKER_02: 26:05

like I've been quite lucky I feel like I've had to say it's a job isn't this um so one that stands out to me um was I had a peds placement in I was working in sort of across two different special schools and I'd been throughout my other placements really able to develop my your standard sort of non-verbal body language communication skills but going into peds um we were with a lot of children who um sort of primary diagnoses could be cerebral palsy, developmental delay, the more neuro side of things and a lot of the children struggled to communicate their needs so adopted sort of Makaton which is it's not British Sign Language but it's kind of a step down and it's used alongside words so during our therapy interventions and sessions with the kids and obviously the class staff would do this as well we'd use you'd use Makaton to communicate with them of obviously you need to gain consent in those situations so we'd be able to do that but I think it was getting to know the child it's hard on a four week I know they've changed it to five weeks for the new intake but on a four week placement in some situations it's hard to see follow-up patients so you may sometimes only see a patient once so in those circumstances it's harder to get to know an individual for me with working with children with cerebral palsy finding out their yes and no actions or what they're their interests are sorry and working alongside maybe OTs and looking at more sort of eye tracking and you can bring into those skills with speech language therapists as well so for me I saw that was a point of needing to adapt my communication skills in that environment I went away spoke to my educator and thought why don't I try and learn Makaton so did that and then brought it back into clinical placement and yeah I sort of used used it with some of the children and it worked really well and I think just even active listening there was there was a situation where um we had one of the mums in with us and she was really really upset and felt like she hadn't been heard by sort of multiple healthcare professionals and just sitting there and letting someone talk and just and listening I think that can be quite powerful in itself because if you are a complex patient and you are under the care of multiple different HCPs it with sort of time pressures and things now it's sometimes people can feel like they've or have come to us and they've not felt like they've been heard so just sitting and listening to them can be really impactful yeah

SPEAKER_01: 28:39

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 28:40

and it sounds like you've been working with lots of different people yeah i feel very fortunate they do talk about there's a lot of talk isn't there about um like multidisciplinary teams but very much just from that one example the amount of people that you've yeah kind of communicated with and yeah and helped or spoken to it's it's a big list yeah

SPEAKER_02: 28:58

i think even in in any placement i know it's obviously trying to to find a variety of placements throughout your the eight that we do and I've been quite fortunate I've had sort of specialty I've covered all the specialties I won't I'll briefly list them so where was my first one I did medical inpatients in Burton oh no I did sorry the American football sports pods I was with the uni for that that was interesting and then I did medical inpatients in Burton community rehab in Melton MSK outpatient at Queen's Community Stroke Peds in Mansfield and then I did ITU in Glenfield which was fascinating and then I've just I've actually just come from a pain management community team that was with consultants and things like that so that was a very big step up for my last one but it was really pushed me so it was good yeah yeah I've been quite lucky

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

that's a really wide range isn't it because

SPEAKER_02: 29:57

I know some people have sort of had a lot of MSK based ones so I've been thankfully very and every team I've been with has has been absolutely amazing and I'm still in contact with all my educators like I've even been for ice cream with one of them so so yeah they've all been I've been very lucky

SPEAKER_00: 30:12

that's nice and it sounds like they've yeah you've been really well yeah definitely yeah definitely so um tell me a little bit about how you find out because obviously you you're saying that yeah you've had a very wide range whereas other people haven't so how does it work in terms of in your second year yeah when they start dishing out placements

SPEAKER_02: 30:31

so I think it's at the end of your first year you it's kind of highlighted to you obviously placements will begin soon and I think a form is it's either the start of second year or end of first year a form sent out by the placement team and you're kind of just highlighting areas that you could be interested in obviously the uni needs to know if you drive if you have a car because that is a key factor in your placements and I think I actually only learnt to drive in right before I came to uni because obviously Covid kind of put me off a bit so having a car was the best thing I could have done because it's allowed me to go and do my community placements I know for some people it's been challenging getting buses or you're not put on them so you do the form and you highlight areas of interest obviously as I said if you have a car or not and then they're kind of dished out randomly I know I remember Zoe saying to me quite early on that obviously they'll recognise if you've been on quite a few similar ones they want you to get the breadth of experience um but i think just when we started it was so hard to find clinical placements with hospitals accepting you because of restrictions and regulations i think that's opened up more now yeah um and i know obviously some sport rehabbers as well that they're sort of had ones in private practice so yeah it's a really good experience but it's quite a nice way that you identify where you want and you may get sort of an area of that and then when you find out obviously there's a um I think it's called ARCPOW. It's a website. So you log in and that tells you your upcoming placements. For us, we were told probably a month or two before. And then I think when you're in your third year, obviously they kind of prep it more in advance. So your last two clinical placements, you know quite a while before. But it's enough time to contact your educators a week or two or a month before. Just highlight that you're going. If there's anything that you need, do you need a smart card if you're going to be logged onto the systems there? uniform do you need where do you pitch up on your first day and what time um and if they can give you like a rough timetable for your four or what will be five weeks that's great because it kind of sets your nerves at ease um but yeah and if there's any other self-directed or wider reading is is good and one thing that was told to me that's stuck in my head um is that um when i when i was in first year or third year said to me even if you're you need to visit where you're going to placement a few days before or a just to be familiar with the area like know where you're going to park looking into parking the hospital what the bus routes are it makes the world of difference um because you go on that first day and you're like oh I'm fine I know where I'm going and you because hospitals are you can get lost so yeah it's definitely something I'd recommend yeah way to get a coffee yes exactly

SPEAKER_00: 33:21

yeah calm your nerves yeah so in your first year then presumably you're doing lots of um kind of clinical placement um like clinical skills to kind of prepare you then for your first placement

SPEAKER_02: 33:34

so for us we had modules um like i think our oh i think it was neuromuscular studies neuromuscular skeletal studies if i'm right in saying that we had sort of module one and two um they were your a and p so anatomy and physiology all of your in-person you're in the clinical rooms you're sort of hands-on kind of in your sports bra and shorts and getting to know yeah everyone everyone quite well um and and that really beneficial because also from your manual handling side of things you've got such experienced lecturers and obviously we had James and different people and Beth at the time and they were new so they were kind of coming up with us as well but they are your manual handling sessions so you really get to grips with doing sort of special tests for your more musculoskeletal side of things but we all looked forward to those Thursday and Friday when you do in-person sessions because i think for me personally that's how i learn i've always struggled reading from a textbook and absorbing that and that's why i wanted also to do physios because it's such a hands-on degree i've never been one to be able to go to an office job and and do that side of things so so yeah it preps you well and obviously you do cpd1 and and things so that follows on from the foundation year and yeah

SPEAKER_00: 34:55

in first

SPEAKER_02: 34:56

year

SPEAKER_00: 34:57

okay so it sounds as if it's been pretty full on for the last four years so tell me what you've been doing to relax so not playing rugby so what have you been doing instead to just kind of

SPEAKER_02: 35:07

unwind I think friends and your social support is a massive thing it was tricky for us only having that certain group during Covid because you had to move into a house with them in our second year so you may not necessarily be friends with everyone but you can get along with everyone and you're all in the same boat and then I think from there my friendship group personally didn't expand after that that second year because we went our separate ways um so yeah coming on to the course I wasn't necessarily friends with um everyone from the foundation year who went on to physio but then because you've all been in that same boat you kind of you do click um and they are still my best friends today so that's been lovely in terms of sort of relaxing and winding down um I just I think it's so nice having the peak district on your doorstep up here um I'm a massive outdoorsy hiker person and So doing that, but just relaxing, even if it's just getting together with your friends and having a, I don't know, make your own pizza night or something. And having family and knowing that you always do have people there. I think uni, whether you do it in sort of COVID or not having done it during COVID, it can be very isolating for people. And you just have to know that you aren't alone in any circumstances. There's always people there, whether they're on your degree or whether they're They're not, they could be friends at home or family. So it's, yeah, you need to put yourself out there and go out past your comfort zone almost in that first year. But you do make friends for life. And it's, yeah, it's lovely.

SPEAKER_00: 36:44

So you kind of touched upon this a little bit. You kind of hinted at it. So now what? You've finished your degree. Yeah, so what's happening next?

SPEAKER_02: 36:54

So my kind of route in this third year has been, I applied quite early, I think it seems. to jobs so I did it in January of this year because a lot of them sort of opened they can open multiple times job applications throughout the year I applied in January to a whole bunch of jobs up here in the Midlands area and at home in Portsmouth I had a couple of interviews for different areas and was successful in two applications so yeah I was I won't name name trusts that's fine but I was toying up between the two and decided to sort of go home rather than staying in Nottingham I think obviously personal factors this year have influenced that and family things but yeah I know a couple of people staying up here and they're really excited for that so yeah I'm into the world of work starting in September so yeah a bit daunting I would imagine yeah so what area are you moving into I don't so I'll be doing band 5 rotations sadly haven't been told which rotation yet but I'm quite looking forward to knowing I have a feeling it could be MSK outpatients though because I feel like that's a quite a common one um but yeah I think the last few months it's because they I think they changed it for our year so we submitted our dissertation sooner so that we didn't have to do it when we were on clinical placements so we've had two back-to-back four-week placements so I was in ITU and Glenfield in Leicester and then I went up to I've been in Doncaster for a lot of it actually for my last one so we've kind of just been able to breathe almost whilst on those placements but at the same time it's been strange still being marked as a student when you know you have a you've been successful in a job yeah um but yeah so that's my route but I know plenty of people who are sort of going traveling and things so yeah there's there's no pressure in in finding things but it's nice to know you've got something

SPEAKER_00: 38:47

secured yeah yeah and you mentioned a dissertation so for students or people who are listening that maybe don't know what a dissertation is yeah can you just tell us what

SPEAKER_02: 38:58

um so what coming to uni I thought it was a 10 000 word essay and we, ours was 6,000, I think. So yeah, it was shorter, which was more manageable. So I did mine on, it's quite lengthy, the effect on professional carers caring for people with dementia during COVID-19, if that makes any sense at all. And I actually explored that route through one of my placements working on medical inpatients with people with dementia, thought it was an interesting subject and did primary research around that I think my pool of people was probably too big it was more of a master's size primary research which I came to find but yeah that was great and we submitted that over Easter so yeah it was alright but I definitely say start the sooner you can especially if you're doing primary research because you don't want to leave it to the last few months whilst you're on placements and you've got other deadlines at the same time so do it in as advance as you can and it will just mean there's less stress Yes, which is always good, isn't it? I'm a very last minute person. So you've

SPEAKER_00: 40:06

had to have a

SPEAKER_02: 40:07

bit

SPEAKER_00: 40:07

of planning. A week up call. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so final question then. Yeah. So if you could give a new foundation student one piece of advice, what would you, or anybody who was considering doing a foundation year, what would that one piece of advice be?

SPEAKER_02: 40:26

Do it. I think you've got, genuinely, you've got nothing to lose. And it's done me so well like my own personal development in terms of coming to uni and it's really cliche but finding who you are and things and that that was has helped me so much but also as I mentioned your even your writing skills and essay writing it's such a step up from uni and I didn't have that college experience so I didn't have the independence so it really was a wake-up call but it's for people who are excited of of uni and quite frankly a lot of people don't want to leave uni after they finish they go on to do a master's because they they love that and sometimes obviously and the education as well but yeah it's an extra year of growing and finding out what the almost that the career you're doing is what you want to do and just learning a bit more about it you meet so many different people from different backgrounds and walks of life and yeah I don't think you've got anything to lose at all by doing it and it's yeah it's benefited me greatly loved it that's really

SPEAKER_00: 41:28

good to hear obviously I'm biased but yeah But yeah, so thank you, Jess. Thank you. It's been really lovely to kind of catch up with you again. Thank you. Yeah, and I'm just really pleased that you finished your degree and that you're going off into the world of work. It's flown by. I know. So well done and congratulations. Thank you. Ruffled on. All your hard work has paid off. Thank you. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 41:54

four years. But yeah, we're here now. We're here. Okay. Yeah, it's been lovely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 42:01

We shall not have gone away.