Is physiotherapy the right career for me?

hey

st georges is a good uni for mature students - over 70% of the current 1st years are mature applicants.

Well at the moment the jobs just aren't really there for SPorts Therapy - most people think we're Physio rejects and because we're not hpc registered we consequently don't have the reputation that comes attached to being so..................the society is working towards registration but its a longprocess. In say 5 years time the career will be much more settled but there just isn't that support and basis at the moment. Hence why I'm doing my physio degree

Hi! One other thing, I've been told by many physio's that generally sports therapy is all well and good, however they only treat fit people, and tend to have less knowledge of pathology- so if there is a more serious problem a sports therapist may not have the knowledge required to treat...

I guess this may be one of the reason sports therapy is more frowned upon than plain physio....

Oh by the way, I've done a sports science degree too and am starting a Msc physiotherapy (accelerated course) in september, I'm 25 I also did a sports therapy/massage diploma but faced the same problems as jackie mentioned above. I'm glad though becuase I've gone right off sports physio now, there is so much more variety to physio out there rather than just sports!

I'm not sure I would totally agree with that comment, but I would agree that alot of the course is aimed at treating those kind of individuals as that is what was specifically designed for. It wasn't designed to treat the grannies who have had a totoal hip replacement but also have emphysema, asthma, OA, RA etc The degree and the career are there to provide highly specialised therapists who can treat people from that kind of environment who have an understanding of the intense pressures and strains of such an environment. And the reverse could be said for physio's -a physio working in elderly mental health probably wouldn't be the best at rehabing a pro footballer with an ACL tear but conversely a sports therapist training pro footballers wouldn't be all that great at encourage Mrs Bloogs who 95 to walk with a rollator zimmer.

Because sports therapy is onlya new degree its still finding its feet and is pretty much geared towards working in private practice and in high spec clubs e.g. football and rugby. As the society finds its feet more situations in which the degree can be used will arise andtherefore the degree will change according.

I just can't wait for that long! Hence physio training!

Fair point! I also think a lot of the attitude to do with sports therapy is the problem with qualification and regulation- there are loads of training bodies out there, you can qualify as a sports therapist in a few weeks....

This makes the industry confusing as people don't know what qualification is better than than the other.... Obviously the longer degree programmes are much better than the short diploma courses, but when there are so many out there it's very confusing for the public. I'd say that's got a lot to do with the image of sports therapy too. Thankfully as Jackie's said it looks like that will change in the next few years..

exactly, this is definitely the major issue. When the sciety get round to being allowed HPC registration they will be the governing body and it will be illegal to call yoursef a sports therapists without the required qualification.

I'm glad they're doing that, definitley a good thing!

hello people I’m new.

I also did the BSc sports therapy degree the same as JackieS and really loved it but for the same reasons as her I’m off to do physio. In fact I had my interview at Northumbria for the MSc on Wednesday and have another coming up on Monday (27th) at Teesside.

Anyway what i was going to say is that i had a chat with Professor Graham Smith (president of Society of Sports Therapists) just before I left Uni and he seemed to think that registration could be a little as 9months down the line.

Of course he may have been stringing me along so I stayed with Sport Therapy. My opinion is that even if it does come so soon I don’t think there will be a sudden influx of jobs flying around, it will take time.

That’s not to discourage anyone from the course as i really enjoyed it.

hello people I’m new.

I also did the BSc sports therapy degree the same as JackieS and really loved it but for the same reasons as her I’m off to do physio. In fact I had my interview at Northumbria for the MSc on Wednesday and have another coming up on Monday (27th) at Teesside.

Anyway what i was going to say is that i had a chat with Professor Graham Smith (president of Society of Sports Therapists) just before I left Uni and he seemed to think that registration could be a little as 9months down the line.

Of course he may have been stringing me along so I stayed with Sport Therapy. My opinion is that even if it does come so soon I don’t think there will be a sudden influx of jobs flying around, it will take time.

That’s not to discourage anyone from the course as i really enjoyed it.

Good luck with your interview! Which would you prefer to go to? I really like the look of Northumbria, I was going to apply there too for the MSc but I ran out of time for the application! Edinburgh was my first choice anyway so I'm glad I'm going there (to do the MSc aswell)

Out of interest were there lots of applicants at Northumbria? There were over 300 at Queen Margarets!

Cheers, I'd defiantly rather go to Northumbria as I have studied at Teesside for the last three years. Also Teesside is not exactly the safest place to live, in three years:

*we were burgled twice
*jumped from behind twice
*had bricks thrown through our windows
*had three of our friends cars broken into, one of them right outside our house in broad daylight
*and a load of other crap happen.

But other than that major factor it was good.

As for Northumbria I really liked the place when i went plus i love Newcastle and its so close to the city centre.

Wow how many applicants that’s crazy! How many places were there available? I'd be well proud to be selected out of 300 people, well done.

For Northumbria there were 160 applications for 7 places and they interviewed the top 60

Crikey!! only 7 places?! Wow you did well to get an interview

There are 20 places at Edinburgh, so the odds are probably a bit better than at northumbria!

Yeah i think ill impress myself if i get on as im not really expecting too much.


Does anyone know if there are usually any places available through clearing on physio MSc courses?