Pharmacy or Physiotherapy?

HAHA wow i thought i had problems.... not really... well i'm currently doing an access course to do physiotherapy at university. as you probably already know physiotherapy is highly demanding and requires both good grades and work experience...

if you was to choose physiotherapy one thing to take into consideration is that you shouldnt mention you want to get involved in to sports physio... purely because its funded by the NHS and they want you to work for them and not go off to a football team etc

i think what you should really do is try and get on to some work experience for physiotherapy? give yourself a chance to see what you would be doing if you was to choose that path...

about the pre-reg i really have no idea about that ahah my course doesnt finish until december so ive not looked that deeply in to it. just give yourself the best chance...

i hope this helps in some way

I have just graduated as a physio. If you enjoy sports and the outdoors, great, but this isn't what you will be doing as a physio. Certainly not for a long time anyway. You will need to do placements in neuro and respiratory as a must which don't involve any outdoors or sports, well I did do some walking round the garden with people post stroke, but that's about it. There are also other areas such as women's health, paeds, mental health etc that you could get asked to do. Running onto a football pitch with a sponge is a minuscule area of physio, and those guys who you see on TV are probably all 10 - 15 years post grad with a masters and a heck of a lot of experience.

It's not that unis prefer you to go into hospitals, but its just that that is where you will do your clinical training. This might change as private practice comes more into the arena with the any willing provider setup that is now in existence, but assume for now that your 1000 hours of practice will be in the NHS, and it won't be glamourous! I've come into contact with poo, vomit, blood and guts on numerous occasions, and if you aren't prepared for this aspect of the job then I would stick to pharmacy.

There is no pre-reg year in physio. I am qualified now and I can go work wherever I want. In reality, this will hopefully be on a junior rotational post within the NHS, but there is no requirement for me to do so.

I would advise you to get some experience in physio, or certainly do some in depth reading about the various roles that a physio can have. Research the courses - physio is full on, 9-5 Mon to Fri for me with Weds afternoons off, but some unis I know are different to this. NHS experience is hard to get, so get applying now if you want to get any this side of Christmas. Other options are contacting charities, nursing homes etc who might have a physio working for them and who might be more approachable if you offer to stick around to chat to the residents or do the tea or something.

Hi,

I just graduated from physio too. Like the above post says, it doesn't really seem likely that as a physio you will be working outdoors or in sports.

Similarly, sports physio is pretty similar to normal physio but just happens to be in a sports environment. So if you don't like hospital physio, it's unlikely that you will love 'sports physio'.

It is also important to think about the job situation. Being from Scotland, I know the environment may be different but there does seem to be very few band five rotation posts at the moment and that is your bread and butter really. That's I suppose what the dream start would be to actually get your basic physio skills.

I would say look into it, but look into the whole profession and not just one aspect. For example respiratory physio and musculoskeletal physio are almost like 2 different professions and both take a long time to master.



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Thanks, its all good me hearing these points about what its really like as a physio, as I have gone with the stereotype of a physio within the sporting side of things. The hospital environment in pharmacy was the most appealing part of pharmacy as there seemed to be more stuff going on, is that then the same in physio then when you talk about it being in the hospitals? And would you also say that the pay is good then? I'm trying to not make salary a huge impact in my decisions as I'd rather be in a happy career I think, than regret taking something that I wanted for just the money sake of things.

I'm not at university at the minute, i'm from nottingham and i am hoping to go and study up in Edinburgh have you thought of where you would like to study? ps; ironmike how much experience did you have before you applied to university?

Thanks for the responses



Thanks, yeah I think the best plan for me before I make any decisions is to try and get some work experience. Which uni do you go to then?




Thanks, I find those areas that you've mentioned interesting. I think the best thing to do is get some work experience done and see if its for me. Which uni did you go to? And if you don't mind me asking is the pay good? You don't have to say how much, as I think as although money is very nice I'd rather enjoy the job than dislike it and get paid more than average.