The New Grad Physio Podcast

Getting rid of a patients lower back pain (and keeping it away)can sometimes feel like an impossible task! You use massage, needling, instrument assisted techniques or maybe something else. These are all great ways to improve lower back symptoms but the problem is, many of these techniques only work for a short period of time. You treat your patients lower back, they jump up and feel great... But...

It can be all too easy to get it wrong with lower back pain patients... And that’s not a good thing for you, or your patient! If you are like most new grads I am sure that treating lower back pain patients can sometimes feel overwhelming. You have to rule out anything serious... Find a diagnosis… Then pick the right treatments and rehab... Or risk flaring up your patients symptoms and making them...

Getting that first opportunity can often be your toughest task. You have graduated and you just need that clinic or club to give you a shot... But you just can't seem to get going. You submit your CV and letter of application and hear nothing back... You reach out to physio's on social media but get no reply... Or maybe you do get an interview but someone else gets offered the job. You feel the ha...

Have you ever found yourself stuck with a patient that has shoulder pain... Unsure about what to do with them after the you have competed the assessment? You ask yourself... What treatments are going to help reduce their pain... Improve their movement... And help them back to full fitness? I used to hate the shoulder and used to dread treating issues at this joint... Until I worked out what I...

The shoulder is a pretty complex joint, with many structures that can cause your patient's pain. And it does not help that so many of your so called shoulder 'special' tests are not that special... Most having poor sensitivity and specificity, meaning it can be hard for you to nail down a clear shoulder pain diagnosis. So you might think, given that you do not have a clear diagnosis, there is...

I am sure you will have thought about what you want to achieve this year. Maybe you have already set yourself some goals. But be ready for disappointment, because... Like the majority of therapists, you probably won't achieve these goals. This is often hard to hear... But unfortunately very true. So what do you need to do to actually hit your career and clinical goals? Discover some simple st...

It does not matter how ‘good’ you might be and how suited to that role you think you are... You might never get that chance to show what you can do. But with some basic career skills and guidance getting that dream job or placement might not be as hard as you think. Key to this is avoiding the #1 mistake that almost all students and new grads make when reaching out to potential clinics and sports...

Santa Claus is super smart. This podcast episode has some jovial comparisons... But some really important messages that can help you become a better therapist. Listen to find out what they are right now! Enjoy the show! PS. Andy would love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Please leave a review or get in touch at  andy@newgradphysio.com  and he will get right back to you. To get a c...

You use it or you lose it! The longer you go without putting what you know into action the worse you actually get at applying what you do know. This might be your patient handling, special testing or your hands-on treatments. It could be how you communicate a diagnosis and prognosis to a patient... Or how to design a rehab plan for a lower back, shoulder or knee injury. That's why you do CPD isn't...

If you get to the end of the subjective assessment and you do not have a firm hypothesis of what might be happening, then something has gone wrong. Even with complex cases, or patients with more than one issue, you should be able to identify a probable cause of the patients problem... Then you can use your objective assessment to prove or disprove this cause. The subjective is so important, probab...

There are many things that I would do differently if I had my time again. Everything I do now is a million miles away from what I did when I first graduated back in 2010. I guess looking back I was just doing what I had been taught at University and using the stuff I had picked up on my placements. But I quickly learned that when I first graduated what I knew at the time was not going to cut it in...

Lower back injuries can be challenging and if not managed well you can easily flare up patient symptoms. You know all your red flag questions and have practiced your neuro assessments (dermatomes, myotomes and reflexes) over and over again… But when it comes to doing it for real you still feel something is missing and you second guess yourself. In this week's episode you will discover a top tip to...

The shoulder is notoriously difficult to manage. It can be tricky to know what the best questions to ask during your subjective assessment are… Or what special tests to use to differently diagnose different shoulder problems... Or where you should start with your patient’s rehab... And the best exercises to use to keep your patients shoulder pain from returning. I guarantee that you are overcompli...

Life as a new grad is always harder than you anticipated. You quickly learn that University did not prepare you for the patients and their problems that you are being now asked to fix up.  The expectations from patients and senior colleagues are much greater now… And having lost that safety blanket you had as a student, you are now expected to know what you are doing and have all the answers....

As a physio there is not much worse than patient’s not doing their rehab. You give your patient the exercises to help them get better… But for whatever reason they don’t do them. Maybe it’s a lack of time… Or they forgot what you told them to do… But whatever it is, you know that if they don’t start buying in to the rehab plan, then they are not going to improve. And these type of patients are alw...

From the outset my new grad journey might look like a dream... Gaining my dream job as the Head Physio at the Leeds Rhinos less than 15 months after graduating. At the time they were the top team in the country, having just one that years Grand Final and having won 4 of the last 5 championships. This was a big job! But it wasn't all rosy, far from it. Those early times as a new grad were littered...

What is the best way to manage an athlete or patient following a concussion? All the recent evidence around concussion points towards a safe, but early return to exercise, and not a prolonged rest period, that was previously prescribed. It is important that the exercise you prescribe does not heighten patient symptoms, especially in the early stages, but like any other injury we need to load the i...

When you treat an acute injury are you following RICE… PRICE… POLICE or the more recent… PEACE & LOVE acute injury model? What really is the best way to manage an acute injury? With so many different methods and protocols it can be hard to make sense of it all. This podcast episode will summarise the best and latest evidence on acute injury management... Giving you the knowledge you need to us...

Do you do your NHS rotations? Go straight into private practice… Or try get your foot in the door sport straight away? Is the most important thing at the start of your career just to get some experience or should you go after your dream job right away? There is a lot to try figure out when you first graduate. Knowing what to do and making sure you make the right career decisions that will help you...

When the knee starts to grumble it can be hard to get on top of patient symptoms and sometimes even harder to stop these symptoms coming back. Lateral knee pain is a common issue and injuries like patella-femoral joint pain, illio-tibial band pain or lateral meniscal problem can cause major distribution to a patient or athletes function, particularly the more active they are. So what might you be...

Starting out you may miss things in your assessments that mean you make the wrong diagnosis. You get to session 2 or 3 and start to question if you are treating the right thing. Maybe you made a diagnosis but then your patient or athlete gets a scan or goes to see a specialist and gets told it’s something else. Maybe you just get it plain wrong and your patient senses this. What do you do? This we...

Hip pain can be tricky to get on top of and often even harder to keep symptoms away... With many patient's symptoms quickly returning as soon as they restart higher level activities like running, the gym or sport. So where should you start with hip pain rehab... How do you know if you are treating the right thing... And when they are ready to progress their rehab? In this week's podcast episode I...

Ankle injuries are common but some injuries are missed, often mis-diagnosed as something else... And this is the big reason why what appear to be simple ankle ‘sprains’ or tendon issues can be tricky to manage… And often take more time than they should to settle down. Add to this the high rates of recurrent ankle injuries, you have a problem. So what is it that you might be doing wrong? In this we...

Whether it’s your first job after graduating or the next job you are applying for, picking the right career path can be tough… Especially when you are first starting out! The biggest danger is that you make the wrong call and you waste the first few years of your career in a job you do not enjoy and even worse... A role that offer limited support and potential progress towards your ultimate dream...

When you use a standing forward flexion test or toe touch, what do you actually look for? Pain? Restriction? Quality of movement? Probably all the above…hopefully. You’d probably use this type of test for a patient reporting lower back pain, maybe hip or thoracic pain (joint below and above) but… Would you use this test for a patient with shoulder or Achilles pain or with patella tendinopathy? Pro...