Ellie Barron

I worked full time for 18 months at Sportsmed and a further 6 months after this part time.

Sportsmed is a private clinical practise based in Southland, New Zealand. Primarily I worked with sports injury patients assisting them with appropriate treatments and rehabilitation programmes to get them back to full health. This consisted of massage, dry needling, and manual handling techniques as well exercise prescription.

Despite primarily being a sports rehab clinic I also had the opportunity to work with chronic pain and return to work patients. This included clinical sessions to help with rehab and pain management as well as having access to a gym and running exercise sessions with patients one on one.

Sportsmed also provides locum clinics at local places of work and schools. This involved treating patients at a local meat works, a high school and also the Southern Institute of technology. This was available for students and teachers ranging from ages as low as 11 years.

I also worked with pre and post op patients which meant developing strength and conditioning programmes for athletes to return to sport as well as returning patients back to work and their daily lives. Primarily these were orthopaedic patients rehabbing back after joint replacements, shoulder and knee reconstructions, achilles rupture etc.

We also used an online service to document patient notes including their goals which I was able to competently navigate to document and evaluate their progress.

Sportsmed also provided sports physios for many local sports teams and as part of this I worked with multiple premier level club rugby teams as their sole team physio as well as multiple Southland age group rugby teams and provincial level senior teams. This included the Southland under 17 and under 19 age group teams, Marist and Blues club rugby teams and I aided a more Senior physio with Southland's provincial level team the Stags.

Reference email:

-Karl MacDonald; karl@sportsmedphysio.co.nz

I had a career break from Physio to pursue a love of Harness Racing horses. During this time I remained registered as a Physio in New Zealand to continue providing a service for rugby teams in Southland when I was available to do so.

Reference email:

- Clark Barron; cjbarronracing@velocitynet.co.nz

I moved to Christchurch NZ to work for another stable to further my career in Harness Racing before making the decision to move to the UK.

Reference email:

- Jill Stockman; jillstockman@xtra.co.nz

Sportsmed have kindly offered to let me shadow their team of physios at work for 2-3 weeks across the month of February to learn new techniques of treatment while allowing me to further develop my existing knowledge.

Reference email:

- Andrew MacKintosh; andrew@sportsmedphysio.co.nz

• In this role I worked with the resident's of the care home to help better and maintain their quality of life. I worked as part of a larger therapy team that included, physio's, OTs, dietician, therapy assistants, SLTs and clinical psychologist. As a team we worked with resident's after they had suffered stroke, fracture, TIA, progressive conditions and the affect's of ageing to ensure they maintain their highest level of independence and comfort in the final years of their life.

• I was employed as a sole trader in this role and while the business provided me clients I was in charge of treating, managing referrals and maintaining my client list. This was a musculoskeletal role in which I predominantly worked with pre and post operative patients referred to and from surgical consultants. This allowed me to develop relationships with leading consultants in London and gain their trust in treating their patients. This also allowed me to refer self referring clients to esteemed surgeons as required. My boss at this time was Mr Nikos Stamos who I was lucky enough to have one on one educational sessions with that included skills for the treatment of the temperomandibular joint and scoliosis.

• I am currently in my fifth week of working in this role in this private practise and have been spoilt with both the work environment and people I am working with. I am working in a small rural town in New Zealand in the region I grew up in. The people of the area predominantly work in rural laborious jobs which I understand well having grow up on a farm and due to my time working in the racing community. I have found it to be a great fit for myself in my role here both with my ability to relate to patients and my relationships with the therapist I am working next too.