Sam Roberts

In this episode of It’s Notts Just Physio, we’re excited to introduce one of our newest Teaching Associates, Sam Roberts! Sam shares how a football injury kickstarted his journey into physiotherapy and offers valuable insights from his time in clinical practice. Tune in for his top tips on building rapport with patients, setting effective goals, and what truly motivates him in his career.

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Hello and welcome back to It's Not Just a Video podcast from me, James Coghlan. Hopefully our listeners know right now, but this podcast is designed for you to get to know our wonderful staff and students within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. And I am delighted to have Sam Roberts with us today. Hello, Sam. Hello, everybody. It's great to have you here. And before we continue, just to remind everyone how you can find us, It's Not Just Physio podcast on social media. We have our Instagram page. Just look for It's Not Just Physio. And you can also find us on Spotify and Apple. And please leave us a review. I don't know. How are we doing on the reviews, George? Have we got any? We're doing all right. I think we're doing We're doing okay. We're doing all right. But please feel free to give us a like. But moving into this, it's great to have Sam with us today. Sam is our newest member of staff to join our physiotherapy team. So Sam, welcome. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. How have you found your first, was it week? Well, it was trial by fire the first week. Go mark some exams and crack on. But no, it was really nice because I'd met you briefly beforehand, so you were quite good. introduced me to the role a little bit and I got to sit in on some presentations that was really nice and yeah I think quite a nice time of the year to join really in the sense that students are kind of off it's all prep for next year it's kind of a nice sort of way for me to just learn the ropes a little bit before we really hit the ground running so yeah looking forward to it and really nice environment to be in so far so yeah loving it. It's a real nice story isn't it because you were a student here weren't you and and you studied physiotherapy. Yeah many years ago now. Yeah you You're making me feel old now. So yeah, I mean, that must be like 10 years ago, maybe seven years ago that I finished. So yeah, I studied here, really enjoyed my time here. It was fantastic. Yeah, great environment for studying in, felt really supported, did my degree, and then I've gone off and been a physio for the past sort of six, seven years. And then, yeah, the job opportunity came up and it was like, well, actually, I love studying there. I think I might quite enjoy working there. So yeah, that's sort of where we're at now. And we'll probably unpick... quite a lot of that as we go on through the pod but why don't you take us back Sam tell us a little bit maybe what got you into why did you decide to study physio yeah so this is I think it's an interesting story so of all things playing football I injured my hand fractured my hand fourth and fifth and then essentially had physio I couldn't move my hand at all well I had surgery actually sorry first I had surgery couldn't move my hand at all and then yeah now I write I type I do everything I have no limitations in my hand and I was like how cool is that I came out of surgery not able to move a limb and then I had all movement back did all the exercises that sparked my interest and yeah I thought that would be a really cool thing to do maybe I could help people maybe I could go on and do that I think that was something I realised I mean I studied a lot later but I realised I want to help people and I want to give something back so physio allows me to do that allows me to sort of influence and hopefully help other people's lives So yeah, that's kind of how I got into it through a football injury of all things. And so you had a positive experience of having some rehabilitation and was that through NHS or was that? Yes, that was just NHS. So yeah, so I had surgery on the NHS and then I've got metal work in my hand. And as I say, just physio on the NHS, knew nothing about physio beforehand. All I knew was being a Blackburn fan. I saw physios run on the pitch with their sponges, wipe people's legs. Common misconception there, that's all physio does. And at the time, I really wanted to be, to be honest, Blackburn's next physio. I wanted to be in sports, doing that sort of thing. And then, really interestingly, I think as I went through university, straight away I was like, actually, I want to keep my sports separate. I do running and cycling myself. I want to do them on one side, and then I want to do physio completely away from that. So I completely switched and said, you know what, don't want to be a sports physio at all. And again, I think nicely with physio as a whole, it's so encompassing various different roles. You've got neurological, respiratory, MSK, all that sort of stuff. And I've got quite a wide experience across all of those and probably still need to make my mind up on exactly what I'm doing. But uni allowed me to experience all those things. So I chopped and changed. And one minute I was like, actually, I want to be a respiratory physio. And the next minute I did something else. And I'm like, actually, I want to be MSK. And I've kind of still been doing that in my career. So I've kind of specialized a little bit in respiratory and then gone back to a little bit more orthopedic MSK. but yeah that was kind of how uni went really a bit of a change of mind sometimes and just touching on those different skill sets you've got how does it feel being so adaptable being able to do all those different roles yeah it's funny because I suppose I don't really see myself as being super adaptable but I suppose I am because I've done various different roles I think it's a key thing that's needed in physios isn't it and I think what was interesting is I think I said to you earlier today I was listening to your podcast with Roger and he was talking very much about the future physios being very adaptable and there was one thing he noted and I remember having this too we might have a patient on a ward that we're seeing for mobility and then we have to call in the neurological physios in to come and do their stuff and obviously they're specialised in that role we don't want to take away from them but like you say being adaptable and us being able to treat that or even I shadowed them and I'd learn from their sessions so that they didn't have to then come and see that patient every time so I suppose being adaptable how does it feel? It feels empowering because you then are able to treat various different patients for different conditions to a good standard. And I think what's nice is if you can do that, and if say you had a patient who you might be seeing for their shoulder or their knee, and then they had a condition like Parkinson's or something, if you've built that relationship up on their knee, on their shoulder, and then you go into Parkinson's as well, I mean, the confidence in you from the patient there and the rapport that you've built up, it's gonna lead to an excellent sort of outcome for their treatment. Yeah, I think empowering would be the word I'd probably use, being adaptable. I mean, it's great to hear that's how you feel from that. I mean, and I'm putting you a little bit on the spot here, Sam, but have you got any examples that spring to mind where you have been able to utilise those different skills, different areas with a patient at all? Yeah, I think it comes in quite a lot. I mean, simply you could be treating a patient in front of you, like I'd said, where they might have knee pain or or something similar like an MSK condition and in the past I've had that and then I've had patients come in with bronchiectasis and trouble clearing their chest and we've gone through like sputum management, ACBT, sort of coughing techniques and that's quite nice. You can see like we might be working on their mobility and building up distance with walking and stuff but actually if their shortness of breath and sputum and things like that are limiting their exercise tolerance, well great, we can treat you for your knee and help improve the knee's quality and how much that knee can tolerate. Actually if your chest can't tolerate it we're never going to get you anywhere so yeah that's been a great example there's probably been many others but like you say being part of the sport I can't remember some but yeah I think it's just treating the it's that and I'm key on this it's that holistic approach isn't it treating what's in front of you and again I think that's something I've noticed here this course has very much shifted to that we're going for that holistic approach towards patients and not just treating the X Y in front of us we're treating the person as a whole And was there any sort of moment that you recollect where you thought, I get what this holistic thing is, because I think there's an argument, isn't it, that we talk about it a lot, and some people might click into that and understand it straight away, but was there a time or experience for you when you started to go, ah, this is what it's all about? I think, it's funny, I've not really thought about that, but just from reflecting there as you were asking the question, I think possibly working with occupational therapists. So that MDT working and working with other professions, seeing the impact on a patient's lifestyle. So as much as we might treat a patient for MSK conditions in clinic, actually seeing how that impacts on home. So yeah, I think going back to maybe like a placement as a student where probably a community placement where you've got occupational therapists, nurses, physios, all working really closely together. I remember going and shadowing an occupational therapist for the day and then seeing how maybe the physio has given them some exercises and the occupational therapist would maybe see that briefly but then they'd see actually how have those exercises and gains in strength led to functioning around the house so yeah I think that was probably a point where that was noted and then as well I think I've just always been quite a communicative person I like a good talk and I think yeah again just listen to a person you then get them on board you then build that rapport So I've always been quite holistic. I think it's great having that clinical knowledge behind you and you need that. But I think treating the person in front of you, number one, really, and getting them on board. I think, I mean, you can hear that passion coming through and that's brilliant. And I think something that often comes up through discussion points, and I'm going to reiterate, we're not by any means demeaning the importance of anatomy within physiotherapy, but I think it's quite evident that over the years there has been a shift in focus. It used to be very much anatomical based practice and that's very much how we used to learn. as you've just said, all those different holistic skills have now come to play, really. So, again, just from your experience, really, clinically, because you work clinically, don't you? Three days a week. How often would you say, Sam, that you're relying on anatomical knowledge base for your treatments? Is it a lot? Oh, every day. What do you feel with that? So, I mean, every day anatomy is useful, but I don't think we can disregard that. But I'll be quite honest and say I've got people I work with who their anatomy knowledge is far superior than mine. So I think it's understanding what you need at that time. And if there isn't something you know and maybe you need, go away, learn, research it. So yeah, I think every day, certainly you need to know what structures are involved. Knees are a good example. Is it meniscus? Is it ligamentous? Is it muscular? Is it joint? So anatomy is absolutely needed. But again, your anatomy can be absolutely fantastic. You might be able to figure out the problem, you might be able to know the exact origin insertion of the muscle and so on and so forth. But I think if you can't motivate your patient to do what you need them to do to resolve said anatomy issue, then you're not getting anywhere. So for me, as I say, and it's not for everyone, I appreciate everyone's got their own skill sets. But for me, that more motivational community of rapport building type thing has been a focus of my clinical practice. But as I say, I do value anatomy and I'm certainly always learning and trying to improve on that. You mentioned that motivational side of things. And I'm conscious of maybe students listening to this who might be about to go on

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clinical

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placements. And as you say, actually, being able to strike up a rapport with a patient is really, really important. Have you got any tips, tricks, advice you could give to anyone maybe listening on a way that they could find a way to strike up a rapport with a patient? Yeah, I think just listen would be the number one tip. And again, I clock myself doing this sometimes when we were chatting earlier I was aware I might interrupt you and speak over you at the odd point and so try not to do that so much and let the patient finish let them sort of get out the sentence what they're trying to say and know when to rein them in of course but I think once you start listening to patients you get a lot more information obviously like I say you can signpost you can guide them but they're great storytellers so if you can like actively listen take the information sort of you're getting repeat stuff back to them show them that you've listened to them show them that you've sort of alleviated their fears and you've paid attention and then you'll build rapport and again another thing it's not to do with physio but find out what they're interested in so i was saying to you earlier i had a patient who's really interested in f1 i've had a few that are really interested in f1 for years i'm interested f1 talk to them about that football etc netball volleyball or whatever the heck it is i love sports i'll talk to anyone about any sport but again you can then build into that for your patients and it might not be sport one one patient i was talking to them about building um ships. They were building tiny miniature ships and ships in a bottle and stuff. And then they showed me pictures of their ships and okay, you've got to know your time limits. You don't want to spend 10 minutes talking about a ship in your treatment. But that built rapport and then he was excited to come and show me what he'd been working on. But this leads back to him being able to stand up for long periods on his knee because he just had a knee replacement. What a way to have a good time. Yeah, a terrible joke. Hate it. James and his dad jokes. Hats off. We We had a hydrotherapy episode. I didn't get that one in. George has put his head in his hands. But yeah, so ultimately, no, no. I mean, ultimately what I was going to say, it's a terrible joke, but I was going to say, bear in mind, I learned that about the patient and how his knee was impacting that, what he was interested in. Find out a patient's interest, 100%, because then you'll keep them motivated. You'll keep them engaged. Make their exercises functional from that. That's amazing, actually. I mean, and as you say, I think that can be part of the enjoyment of the job of the other side isn't it learning something new yourself about a patient's hobby what that means but how interesting you mentioned about a knee and this person was perhaps struggling to do their hobby you wouldn't naturally think would you creating a boat in a bottle would be anything to do with a knee they were large galleons so they were the size of a table and he was having to stand up for long periods and do that so again we talked about stiffness in his knee which is quite common post-operative We talked about how to relieve the stiffness, how to pace and break stuff down. So you can massively relate stuff in and that's just a really basic example. But yeah, I think always knowing your patient, knowing what they demand of the joint or the injury then helps you improve and work towards their patients and goals. Did you find, for example, with this person and shipbuilding, but you also mentioned people who like F1, did you find you used any analogies in line with their hobby to help with their motivational to help explain perhaps the rehab process at all did you go down that road? Yeah I don't know maybe not necessarily analogies but I think just always relating back to how is this if you want to do said exercise or sorry said hobby said sport what do you need from your joint muscle ligament etc to be able to achieve that so I think it's always relating back because as physios sometimes we can get very lost in return to running is a good one at the moment maybe certain score on quads and hamstrings and all that sort of stuff and what that means. And they're absolutely valid and they're needed to know that we can return a patient to running in a safe manner. But actually, a patient might not be interested in that. Some patients who are really switched on by figures love that, but others might be like, well, I just want to run. What's this got to do with it? So then, yeah, it's about explaining this is why we're doing stuff that's then going to link into your hobby. And again, then it's maybe about doing, say, functional exercises, different types of exercises that actually are fun and not necessarily do so many reps and sets of this and that. It's actually what can we do throughout the day to work on maybe building that strength, getting that range better through a way that you enjoy it and you don't see it as a chore or a form of exercise. So yeah, maybe not analogies, but that's kind of, hopefully that's answered your question a little bit. No, yeah, sure. Absolutely. I think, you know, linking back very much of the focus of the why, what is the purpose of this exercise? What's it going to enable you to do? I'm just, from some of my experiences when I've worked with people like engineers and things like that, sometimes talking like a knee joint and relating it to some sort of system or mechanic that they've used, they sort of go, oh, that knee is a bit like a hinge and sometimes it leans away. So engineers love that. So yeah, as soon as I get my goniometer out and I measure a knee, they love that. So yeah, and I've had a patient ask me before if they can have my goniometer. Oh, really? Well, that's from uni. They're not having my goniometer from uni. That's been with me like seven years. It's no way. But yeah, so engineers are loved. If you give them range and you say you're 95 degrees, I need you at 110 or whatever to ride your bike, 115, and they'll say, right, next week I'm going to be at 105. And then you give them 10 degrees each week, et cetera. And yeah, so they do love that. It's funny, whether it's an analogy or not, but one thing I find myself using, a really terrible one, we talk about different aspects that patients need. And I always talk about marathons and for pacing and grading yourself. And I might say to a patient your marathon right now is your daily activity that's sort of hard work for you you've come out of surgery or whatever just walking around the house is tough so yeah I generally talk about the long game the marathons and that's sort of I compare it to your marathon right now that's probably one of my key phrases your marathon right now is your daily activity so yeah that's one little one I tend to use no it's great I think I mean there's absolutely evidence out there showing more and more that if you can provide context to why this is important to how those clear goals for patients because I remember as a student one of the first things I was on placement it was always it was just sort of come up with some goals with the patient and I gotta be honest looking back now I probably never really quite understood the importance of that it was felt like it had to be smart you know specific and measurable and I at that point I didn't really know how those things worked I didn't really understand about timelines very much I didn't really understand how things got into but I think from what you're saying from there like sort of that doesn't have to be necessarily on that but there can be sort of a a task an opportunity a hobby to get back to some sort of focus definitely is obviously really important yeah I think you spot on I mean I I remember talking about smart, smarter goals, all that sort of stuff. And they can be great. And certainly for maybe your higher level patients, they'll respond really well to that. But say I work in quite an orthopedic role at the moment, simple stuff like getting up and down the stairs to be able to go to the toilet if you've not got a downstairs toilet or being able to sit and stand off a chair without requiring use of your crutches or so on. I think it's finding out what is important to that patient at that time. And again, that evolves and that changes. So what's really nice is, yeah, I tend to set goals probably four or six depending on however many a patient needs but simple ones it might be getting you to walk unaided we always joke when patients generally well when we drop them down to one crutch we joke about that being easy because then you can carry a cup of tea so it's those little things that are important to people instead of struggling throughout their daily life so yeah I think I say they're not always smart I'll be quite honest with you but they're usually meaningful and that's I think really important to the patients nice I think that's really really great. People listening to this will hopefully be able to take that into their treatments. But as you say, that adaptability and finding what that hook is with that patient is really important. And talking about motivation, Sam, can you give us some ideas about things that keep you motivated that could be within your line of work or even outside of work? Have you got any particular sort of passions and motivations? Yeah, so I think what's really nice is my motivations seem to align pretty similarly with the rest of the team here so I've certainly heard Roger say it and I've heard other members of staff say it but we want the students to do well and I want my patients to do well that's what motivates me I'm very much I suppose motivated by extrinsic factors and seeing other people succeed so I want my patients to do the best they can and I strive for that and sometimes that's not always the case sometimes you've got to know your remits your boundaries your limitations but generally getting someone to achieve to their best ability is what I thrive on and that can be like I say patients or students what I enjoy what motivates me half marathons love a good half marathon injured at the moment but we won't go there so yeah improving myself on that seeing that time tick down cycling again love riding my bike but I think motivations don't necessarily have to come from say necessarily achieving things one thing I've maybe struggled with and it's been finding the balance really is work-life balance. And spending time with my girlfriend, my dog, my family, I know it's very cliche, but they're really important. So that can be a motivation in life. Saving up for Japan now at the moment, that's a holiday that I'm planning, so that's a motivation. So I don't think your motivation's all, I think there's such a big focus on motivations being you've got to achieve and be the best in your job. And don't get me wrong, I'm hoping that here throughout my work at Nottingham and the university will inspire people to achieve the best in their work life that they can. But I think it's okay sometimes to achieve brilliant goals outside of work and other sort of motivations. You can't be solely work focused. You've got to go and have some fun, I think. Shane and I learned the other day, comparison is the thief of joy. And I think sometimes we're a little bit too hung up in comparing ourselves to everyone else. I'm never going to be the best physio. I accept that. That's fine. But I might be the best physio for my patient at that time. And that's okay. I don't need to be the best physio for versus say like you or say the best one in the country, it's always going to be someone better than you. Unless you're Mo Farah or Usain Bolt at said time. So I think we need to stop getting hung up with comparing ourselves to other people and stop trying to be ultimate mega high achiever. Why not just do the best you can? That's fine. I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think it's the switching of the narrative rather than, as we just said before, it's actually a bit of a nonsense to say who is the best what because of that. So subjective. But as you said, can you be the best... for your patients at that time. And I think that is really good. And the reality is we're human and we all have our ups and downs and our, you know, there's times when we go into clinically and we're not firing on all cylinders. However, certainly through this course, we have to teach our students there is a general structure on being safe, in being engaged, in being there and present and actually can't underestimate those things, can we? And it doesn't have to have all these extra bells and whistles, which you sometimes see on social media, don't you? These extra little bits of... And I do love that, when you've got those extra bells and whistles and you can learn off them, that's fantastic. But it's not always needed. Sometimes just getting the basics right and doing them well can be fundamental, I suppose, and really set you up well. My girlfriend will laugh at this, and I've got to probably put this in here, but like I said about being the best physio for your patient at that time, that might happen one day, but other days... It might not. Me and a patient might not click. That's okay. Like, when you've got friends, you click with some people, you don't get on with others. Sometimes, unfortunately, it's a bit like that with patients. And my girlfriend will laugh because there's a saying, and we always use this together with ourselves, we're different people. None of us are the same. So me and my girlfriend might disagree about something and she'll look a bit cross at me and I'll say, well, we're different people. I do it my way, you do it your way. That's okay. Patients are like that. Some patients get on really well with me because maybe they do it similarly to me, they do it my way. Others, my way may be necessarily doesn't work for them now that's where going back to what you said about being adaptable I've got to find a way to kind of work on that and find a way that works for them but yeah I think just being adaptable and accepting that you know what sometimes it's not always going to be perfect but do a good job nonetheless I suppose yeah I think some really wise words in that and I think no one's ever called me wise but I think also to take into account sometimes in certainly in Rehabilitation, patient contacts, you know, I've worked with, you know, I'm sure you as well, you know, with GPs, consultants and things. As physios as well, you know, same with nurses. Sometimes there are things you have to tell a patient which is not particularly comfortable. But it's needed. There's some things it's needed. There's a pressing issue. There's something that needs to be addressed. And you're right. You know, you might get a patient that's not always going to be wanting to hear that. But there's obviously there's a sound medical reason from that. And believe it or not, sometimes those are the best ones. I know that sounds about right. I'm not trying to say let's all start causing problems with patients. But I remember, it made me think, I remember years ago I worked with a chap and, you know, he had this sort of ongoing back pain, nothing sinister. He'd had a couple of hands-on sessions, wasn't really making much difference. And something he said which made me think about he was like oh you know i like to keep fit and active and this and the other but looking at his general strength markers and things like that there were things there which i was i was questioning whether that was the case so we said i said what the next session we go down into the gym and we just have a go at just doing some stuff again just to see how you move anyway remember taking him down to this cross trainer and we last literally five minutes on the cross trainer

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yeah

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absolutely pouring in sweat And I remember he sort of came off it and I thought, blimey, we've not really pushed very hard here. And his face was just this picture of, I think, a mix of what was that, a bit of embarrassment and a bit of, oh, I don't know. But actually, and I thought, oh, gosh, he's probably not going to come back and see me now. Yeah. So the session finished. He's like, you know, OK. And I thought, oh, OK.

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Anyway.

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He came back and saw me in six weeks time. I didn't recognise him in the waiting room because he'd lost a lot of weight in that time. And he said, I can't thank you enough for that session. He said, I'm sorry I went. It probably looked like I was being a bit, but he said, I just couldn't believe. I thought I was really fit and active. And you made me realise I wasn't. And I've gone and done, I've now changed my life and I feel the best I've done in years. How fantastic is that? What a difference. Anyway, one could have been in that position and done it but it made me think that sometimes the reaction you get most of the time hopefully there's a positive reaction but sometimes as therapists we have to sometimes go there don't we and it can be a bit uncomfortable it can sometimes generate frustration can you relate to that at all? Yeah definitely I think sometimes I suppose don't form opinions don't have stigmas would be my comment before you've kind of opened yourself up to a patient or learnt from them because I think certainly I might have my opinion of what I want the patient to do or what I want them to be really good at. And then when I actually discuss that with them, they'll say, well, actually, no, I'm happy with what I'm doing or so on. And like you say, I suppose finding out things about patients or maybe having something that you just completely didn't expect. Yeah, I mean, I've had all sorts. I've had like, oh, I had a 95-year-old in the other day after a hip or knee replacement. And I mean, he's walking a mile a day. He's fantastically mobile, fantastically active. And looking at it, man, I said, there's no way in hell he's gonna do that. Excuse my French there. But yeah, so I think you just gotta be open to things, haven't you? Open to try new things to challenge the status quo. Yeah, and again, going back to say, I suppose all the patients in the gym and stuff, there's loads of research on that. I don't wanna bore you with it, but GPs now are recognising that, aren't they? And they're referring patients to gyms and you've got all that scheme going on. So I've got patients a lot older than me doing a lot more than me in a gym. It's fantastic. and patients teaching me things that I didn't know about, sort of gym and so on. So yeah, I think, so those differences that you make though, isn't it? Like sort of taking a patient, I had one who's not been in the gym for 20 years the other week and I took him onto a leg press and he was amazed with what he could do on the leg press. I secretly let him in, I knew he was going to manage it because he can lift his body weight when he sits in the stands, so he's going to be fine on the leg press. But he was amazed, do you know what I mean? And then it sort of empowered him to go, you know what, I think I could do this, I think I could go to the gym, I shouldn't be scared. So yeah, and again, I think going back to like challenge the status quo, this isn't for every patient, but sometimes don't be afraid to do something a little bit different. I've had patients and walked them, we're quite spoiled where I work now. We've got a lovely sort of garden that we can walk the patients around. And you might get very used to say walking them up and down your parallel bars or anything like that. But I've had a windy day where I was purposely gone out and walked a patient outside because they blow over in the wind. Like bless her, she was sort of stick fit. And so it's like, this is unsafe so let's go have a look at you outside in the wind and see and I'll be there and we'll make it safe so I suppose it's just think outside the box a little bit again hydrotherapy is good for that there's loads you can do with hydrotherapy your water drug would come in great there but yeah I think just thinking outside the box a little bit doesn't have to be with every patient no but I think it ties back very nicely to what you're saying and I think finding that hook finding that meaning but being adaptable and i think going back into now you've been you know clinical for a number of years you're now adapting by coming into helping in the teaching now which is fantastic and students are going to be very lucky to have your input what are you most looking forward to now with this role yourself yeah i think i think we've we've touched on it a bit uh already but i think one of the big reasons i want to do this role is i want to in influence other people? And I've been reflecting on that question a little bit myself, actually. I feel, obviously, treating patients, you can influence one patient at a time. What if I influence students and then they'll influence one patient at a time? Then my global reach is vastly improved. So if I can be really good and educate students and provide them a really positive experience, then they can go and provide positive experiences. Instead of me reaching out to, say, 10, 20, 100 patients a week, that could be thousands of patients a week, thousands of people I've helped improve their life So that's a selfish sort of motivation for myself. I mean, I enjoy sort of hands-on, what I'll be teaching is clinical skills. I really enjoy that, so that's fantastic. Again, part of the reason I'm here, really supportive environment, fantastic, can't wait to get going. I've stopped there, though, because I've completely forgot the question. Forgive me. This will be a theme. I do this, I waffle, and then I get stuck. You're going to have to go back. I think you've asked it really well. And I think when you talk about, I have no doubt, you'll have a real positive impact going forward in your sessions. The students are going to be really lucky to work with you. One thing I've loved about being in this role is how much the students have affected me. There's so many examples. We have some absolutely wonderful students here and the things that they're doing, you know, on the course, outside the course, their initiatives, their thinking, their projects, it's really exciting. So it's a really lovely feeling where... Do you mind if I pick up on that? Yeah. And again, sorry, interrupting James here. Don't do this, guys. So, yeah, essentially, what you've touched on there, what I love about working with students, they question everything. They make me learn. They make me get better at what I do. They'll ask you... might be doing something really simple that you've done for years on end and they'll say why are you doing that and then not only do they say why are you doing that they say well I've got maybe another idea and I'll say okay let's see your idea maybe their way of doing it is better than my way I'm happy to learn that new way so I think from that I'd say to the students don't be one of those horrible question everything and be a bit of an upstart but if you've got a bit of an idea and you've got the right sort of educator or right person ask them challenge them teach them your way they might prefer your way I've learned loads from students while I've been clinical and I And I think, again, part of the reason I'm here is because I had some great educators. I had some great lecturers. I want to give that back. I want to be one of those great educators, one of those great lecturers. I might, unfortunately, for the odd person, not be. But I would hope that more often than not, I am going to be that great sort of inspiration, role model, et cetera. So, yeah, I think that's one of the main reasons. That's great. That's great. And I think that really ties into our one of our key initiatives here is, as we were discussing before, the picture of a physiotherapist as a rehabilitator is changing. We want to help students become these really pioneering, inspiring people that are not just within the confines of the stereotypical physiotherapist. There's so much more now in terms of doing that so you know it's already um i think that's already showing really really well um which is which is fantastic so and we just want to continue to to make that bloom and blossom i think just sort of uh looking to kind of you know unfortunately come to the end of the time here sam but just from your your own experiences um life experience you've been a student through the course um looked after students lots of you know lots and lots of things. You've given some great advice on this pod anyway, but I just want to say, is there anything else that you would give to anyone who's listening to this? A bit of Sam Roberts advice, life advice. You don't want any of that. Anything like that, study advice, anything that you think people need to hear which you'd heard when you were a student. I'm not going to be groundbreaking and I'm not going to give you anything that philosophers and anyone's not done before, but I think getting that work-life balance is key. And that's one of the reasons why I'm working here and one of the reasons I studied here. Great things, if you do sports, Wednesdays are pretty free for you as well. as a student, go do your sports, go do it to what level you can do it. It doesn't have to be books level, it could be intramural sports, it could be just playing with your friends, but it might not even be sports, it might be something, it might be model building, building those big ships we talked about. Go do something you enjoy. So I think do your studies, but then reward yourself with that thing that you enjoy. Everyone goes on about learn something new every day. You don't have to learn something new every day, it'd be great if you could. You've learned a bit about me today, that's your job done. If you wanna learn something else, to shoehorn this one in. Pamplemousse. It's French for grapefruit. There you go. You've learned something else today. There's a nice way to end it. But yeah, I think just work-life balance. That's the way to do it. Fantastic. Sounds great. Sam, it's been a pleasure. No, thank you for having me. I hope I've not waffled too much. I hope that was useful. Not at all. Great. I'll speak

SPEAKER_01 36:17

soon. Cheers. Thank you. Shall not have gone away