Student placement information - physiotherapy

As you will be undertaking a placement with us soon, I would imagine there are a few details you would like to know to make your preparation easier.

You will be based at Springfield University Hospital, the headquarters and main site of SW London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.  We are closely associated with St George’s Hospital medical school, which gives us our university status and provides funding for the research and development work undertaken here.

Our department is known as ‘Physical Therapies’ because it comprises Physiotherapists, Massage Therapists and Exercise Therapists. There are 15 of us in total: 4 Physiotherapists, 3 Massage therapists, 5 Exercise Therapists, a Head of Department and a Team Assistant.

All three elements of the service are provided in the department and on the wards. We also provide input to the Community Mental Health Teams, National Deaf Services and Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton. Our community physiotherapy service mostly serves older people with mental health problems.

We see our role very clearly as being to address our clients’ physical needs so that, although we adapt our approach where necessary, we apply our core physiotherapy skills and adhere closely to the principles and standards of physiotherapy practice. Being a mental health trust the hospital is not equipped to deal with acute medical or surgical cases and therefore you will not see such clients during your time here.

The department has a gym on site and the Exercise Therapy Service also operates several sports groups in various commercial venues within the borough. The philosophy of the gym is to engage clients in physical activity on an ongoing basis.

Massage Therapy takes place in the department and on certain wards and is provided as a therapeutic intervention to assist in physical and emotional relaxation.

You will have the opportunity to spend time with the Massage Therapists and the Exercise Therapists, as well as the other professionals who make up the multi-disciplinary teams. We will have put together a basic programme for you by the time you arrive, but will have left some time for you to arrange visits for yourself, to experience areas you are particularly interested in. We encourage you to undertake some self-directed learning; It’s up to you to take the initiative with this and to use these times well to get the most out of the placement. A short reading list is enclosed to help you to prepare. The types of conditions you will most commonly encounter are depression, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, addictions, dementia, and anxiety disorders. Your placement here will be partly observational due to the nature of the client group.

We aim to create a friendly, informal, non-institutionalised environment for our clients. No one here wears uniform. Instead, you are expected to dress casually, but neatly and appropriately: e.g. track suit or loose trousers and comfortable shoes.

There is a canteen which provides breakfast and lunch.  There is also a staff kitchen equipped with a fridge, microwave and toaster should you prefer to bring your own lunch.

We have a well-equipped gym on site which you are welcome to make use of during staff fitness sessions in the lunchtime and evenings.

The nearest tube is Tooting Bec on the Northern Line, which is only a 10-minute walk away. Alternatively, you can get a G1 bus from Clapham Junction (British Rail) which drops you on-site. Physical Therapies is located in Jasmine Tower in the main building and shares a common entrance with Public Health (which is well signposted)

The department is open from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.  On your first day please arrive at 9.30 a.m. Your regular hours are likely to be 9.00 4.00 but you may have to be flexible at times, especially if particular visits have been arranged.

Your clinical educators will be Josephine Bell and Victoria Welsh, but you will also be spending one day a week on a different site with a different supervisor who will be allocated to you on your first day.

I hope the above information is useful. Please telephone the department on 020 8682 5873 if you require any further information or if you would like to speak to either of us in advance.  We look forward to meeting you.

Josephine Bell
Physiotherapy Clinical Specialist