Physiotherapy is a health profession generally associated with helping people recover following injury, pain or disability. However it has much wider applications, which span across almost every area of medicine and healthcare.
In acute hospital medicine they work on medical and surgical wards and in specialised units such as intensive care, coronary care, burns and rehabilitation centres.
Physiotherapist's skills are vital in respiratory care, helping people overcome breathing difficulties; in orthopaedics, rehabilitating people following surgery on bones and joints; in neurology, helping people suffering from conditions such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, head injury etc to overcome problems due to muscle weakness, pain and poor balance. They also have a role to play in the care of premature babies and in women's health, particularly antenatal care.
Outside the hospital setting, their work is not confined to private practice. They also have a place in community care and specialist clinics, such as the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC). Physiotherapy manager with the CRC, Joan Hurley, says physiotherapy is a large part of the care of children with both physical and learning disabilities. "We would deal with children with cerebral palsy quite a lot but we also treat children with learning disabilities, as they often have associated difficulties with movement and co-ordination."
Sports physio is another big area of the profession - in hospital care, private practice and as part of team behind top athletes. "Most teams of any calibre will have chartered physiotherapists not only to deal with sporting injury but to give advice on prevention and care," she says.
Hurley stresses chartered physiotherapists are not just there to follow out a doctor's prescription'; they are fully independent professionals responsible for their own diagnosis and treatment. These skills, she says, can be very useful in outpatient's clinics.
"They have the expertise to decide whether a patient needs a consultant; this means that they are essential in helping cut down waiting lists." Hurley says that to do the job you need to be fit both physically and mentally. "You might be dealing with the parents of a child who has cerebral palsy, or working in oncology or in hospice care - you need to be mentally strong for that. It can be stressful, but it's very rewarding."
In this State, fully qualified and recognised physiotherapists are called chartered physiotherapists and are members of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP).
Gretta Crowley of the ISCP says the areas in which chartered physiotherapists work are expanding. "A lot more physiotherapists are working in community care, in such areas as managing disability at home and mobility clinics for the elderly. They also work in a preventative capacity, advising the elderly how to get up from a fall."
Occupational health is another growth area, she says, with physiotherapists advising on office design and teaching employees good lifting practices. There are three colleges in the State where you can train to become a chartered physiotherapist: UCD, Trinity and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Peter Yung, director of the department of physiotherapy at Trinity, says the job opportunities are, "excellent at the moment". Trinity takes in 35 undergraduates each year and the dropout rate is very low, "There might be one person who drops out each year, but that's about it," he says.
The job does offer good opportunities for travel. However, Yung warns that certain countries are cutting down on the number of immigrants they take in the profession. "The US is graduating a lot more physical therapists than previously, so they are reluctant to accept as many graduates from Ireland or Britain as they used to."
The most important quality prospective students should have, he says, is the ability to relate to people. "Students should have an empathetic approach - they need to have a feeling for people."
