Our friend Georgie Payne, a 3rd year student from Coventry University has written an excellent blog post about tackling the negative thoughts we all experience as student physios. Whether this is on placement or during exams, we all have that voice in the back of our head telling us we can't do it. Luckily Georgie has some great tips on how to tackle that voice and replace it with something more positive.
Thanks for Georgie for allowing us to use her post which you can find below!
“How Can I Be a Good Physio When I Don’t Believe in Myself?”
“I don’t know how to do anything. I’m never going to be a good physio!”
These two sentences have run through my head many times whilst out on placement, either when I’ve been sat in the department with my head in my hands or trying to get to sleep at night. All students, no matter what course you do, have experienced good days and bad days at placement. Some days you could be walking on cloud nine and other days you just want the ground to swallow you up. I had more trips to the grounds stomach than to cloud nine.
My confidence has always affected me ever since school. I don’t think it helped when teachers told me to “choose a different career, you’ll never be a physio”. For years I’ve wanted to be a physio and now I’m being told that I’m never going to get there by people who are supposed to be encouraging. If they don’t believe in me how am I supposed to believe in myself? My parents have always supported me and told me I’ll get there, but to me it was their job to say that; they weren’t the ones marking my work. But here I am in my final year of physio after working hard for months and months and proved my teachers wrong. I was really looking forward to going to uni as there was no one there telling me that I couldn’t be a physio! And I started to believe in myself that I could do it.
The only time I felt my confidence take a dip at uni was during the practical vivas. I didn’t like the feeling of being put on the spot and watched especially in front of a physio who knows what they’re doing whilst I pretend to know what I’m doing with PNF. Leading up to the vivas I would drive myself insane panicking about it all. “What if I choose the wrong treatment?”, “what if I forget everything?”, the big “what if….” questions. The vivas weren’t as scary as I thought they would be and I came out with some good grades. Having vivas before placement is good because it prepares you for the placement environment or being observed whilst working and being asked questions. Also it helps with your clinical reasoning. I would tell myself that placement won’t be that bad as it’s the same as a viva just longer. I’m also not going to let my confidence affect me and I’m going to through myself into the deep end. I KNOW I CAN DO IT!
“So what is the patho behind MS?”
“Err….” I reply.
“Do you want to do this assessment and I’ll stand next to you and watch?”
“Err….” I reply.
I was kidding myself that I would throw myself into the deep end. The shallow end of a pool is much safer.
The amount of times I looked like a rabbit in front of headlights in front of my educator and other physio’s when I didn’t need to be; I knew the answers to the questions and I knew I could do an assessment. To them I must look stupid. “How is she going to be a physio?!” they must think. Well that’s at least what I think they say. For me it’s very frustrating constantly being a rabbit and not having the confidence to say something when I know the answer, or not doing passive movements confidently as I’m scared I’m going to be told I’m doing it wrong.
But no one would ever see my frustration as I always wore a smile on my face. I’m also not one to tell someone that I’m struggling as I’m too worried about what they may think; if you wear a smile everyone thinks you’re fine. I would always get told that I’m constantly smiling and that people would miss my smile once I leave. Ha, if only you knew what I was covering up. “Choose a different career, you’ll never be a physio”. Have you ever seen a physio that’s not confident? Maybe my teachers were right after all….
I fought through my first few placements taking each day as it came thinking “if Britney can make it through 2007, I can make it through today!”. My marks were okay but could have been better if I had more confidence in myself and asked those extra few questions, or didn’t always look at my educator for prompting whilst doing an assessment that I’m capable of doing individually. So annoying. My educators would leave comments like “Georgie is a good physio but just needs more confidence”. Is there anywhere that I can buy some of this confidence stuff? It was nice that they thought I was a good physio, it was just the confidence word I didn’t like. I thought it wasn’t going to follow me everywhere.
“I want to talk to you about your confidence”, said one of my educators before she gave me my final mark.
“Do we really have to?! I know its low and it annoys the hell out of me. Let’s move on,” I think to myself expecting the same comments about confidence coming with experience.
But she didn’t talk about that. What she did say I wish I had been told sooner. She said that she had noticed that I had more confidence when I had control of the situation like my viva and an in service training I did. I was also more confident when I was working alone and she watched me from afar which is what I preferred instead of her standing next to me. When I have control I’m more likely to share my knowledge and demonstrate my skills more effectively and it was very frustrating for her when she would see me crumble when she’d put me on the spot in front of a patient. A feeling we both shared. As well as this she also told me what to do on future placements. She suggested I tell my future educators about my low confidence and how I like things to be done. I’m on placement to learn and we all learn differently. I’m very good at spotting my negatives and focusing on these. She suggested I write more positive reflections than ones on things I could have done better.
It wasn’t my best mark but it was the best feedback I received. I learnt how to handle my confidence levels. On my next placement I wrote a reflection on my confidence in my 2nd week and showed it to my educator. She had noticed the same thing and we discussed ways to make me feel more comfortable to get the most out of my placement. Throughout the rest of this placement I was spending more time on cloud 9 than in the earth’s stomach and it felt AMAZING! I’m going to carry this feeling over to my final placement and then onto my first job.
If I was going to give some advice about placement for those who get affected easily by low confidence it would be:
‘There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think’.
Georgie Payne
3rd Year Physiotherapy Student
@GeorgiePayne93
Thanks for Georgie for allowing us to use her post which you can find below!
“How Can I Be a Good Physio When I Don’t Believe in Myself?”
“I don’t know how to do anything. I’m never going to be a good physio!”
These two sentences have run through my head many times whilst out on placement, either when I’ve been sat in the department with my head in my hands or trying to get to sleep at night. All students, no matter what course you do, have experienced good days and bad days at placement. Some days you could be walking on cloud nine and other days you just want the ground to swallow you up. I had more trips to the grounds stomach than to cloud nine.
My confidence has always affected me ever since school. I don’t think it helped when teachers told me to “choose a different career, you’ll never be a physio”. For years I’ve wanted to be a physio and now I’m being told that I’m never going to get there by people who are supposed to be encouraging. If they don’t believe in me how am I supposed to believe in myself? My parents have always supported me and told me I’ll get there, but to me it was their job to say that; they weren’t the ones marking my work. But here I am in my final year of physio after working hard for months and months and proved my teachers wrong. I was really looking forward to going to uni as there was no one there telling me that I couldn’t be a physio! And I started to believe in myself that I could do it.
The only time I felt my confidence take a dip at uni was during the practical vivas. I didn’t like the feeling of being put on the spot and watched especially in front of a physio who knows what they’re doing whilst I pretend to know what I’m doing with PNF. Leading up to the vivas I would drive myself insane panicking about it all. “What if I choose the wrong treatment?”, “what if I forget everything?”, the big “what if….” questions. The vivas weren’t as scary as I thought they would be and I came out with some good grades. Having vivas before placement is good because it prepares you for the placement environment or being observed whilst working and being asked questions. Also it helps with your clinical reasoning. I would tell myself that placement won’t be that bad as it’s the same as a viva just longer. I’m also not going to let my confidence affect me and I’m going to through myself into the deep end. I KNOW I CAN DO IT!
“So what is the patho behind MS?”
“Err….” I reply.
“Do you want to do this assessment and I’ll stand next to you and watch?”
“Err….” I reply.
I was kidding myself that I would throw myself into the deep end. The shallow end of a pool is much safer.
The amount of times I looked like a rabbit in front of headlights in front of my educator and other physio’s when I didn’t need to be; I knew the answers to the questions and I knew I could do an assessment. To them I must look stupid. “How is she going to be a physio?!” they must think. Well that’s at least what I think they say. For me it’s very frustrating constantly being a rabbit and not having the confidence to say something when I know the answer, or not doing passive movements confidently as I’m scared I’m going to be told I’m doing it wrong.
But no one would ever see my frustration as I always wore a smile on my face. I’m also not one to tell someone that I’m struggling as I’m too worried about what they may think; if you wear a smile everyone thinks you’re fine. I would always get told that I’m constantly smiling and that people would miss my smile once I leave. Ha, if only you knew what I was covering up. “Choose a different career, you’ll never be a physio”. Have you ever seen a physio that’s not confident? Maybe my teachers were right after all….
I fought through my first few placements taking each day as it came thinking “if Britney can make it through 2007, I can make it through today!”. My marks were okay but could have been better if I had more confidence in myself and asked those extra few questions, or didn’t always look at my educator for prompting whilst doing an assessment that I’m capable of doing individually. So annoying. My educators would leave comments like “Georgie is a good physio but just needs more confidence”. Is there anywhere that I can buy some of this confidence stuff? It was nice that they thought I was a good physio, it was just the confidence word I didn’t like. I thought it wasn’t going to follow me everywhere.
“I want to talk to you about your confidence”, said one of my educators before she gave me my final mark.
“Do we really have to?! I know its low and it annoys the hell out of me. Let’s move on,” I think to myself expecting the same comments about confidence coming with experience.
But she didn’t talk about that. What she did say I wish I had been told sooner. She said that she had noticed that I had more confidence when I had control of the situation like my viva and an in service training I did. I was also more confident when I was working alone and she watched me from afar which is what I preferred instead of her standing next to me. When I have control I’m more likely to share my knowledge and demonstrate my skills more effectively and it was very frustrating for her when she would see me crumble when she’d put me on the spot in front of a patient. A feeling we both shared. As well as this she also told me what to do on future placements. She suggested I tell my future educators about my low confidence and how I like things to be done. I’m on placement to learn and we all learn differently. I’m very good at spotting my negatives and focusing on these. She suggested I write more positive reflections than ones on things I could have done better.
It wasn’t my best mark but it was the best feedback I received. I learnt how to handle my confidence levels. On my next placement I wrote a reflection on my confidence in my 2nd week and showed it to my educator. She had noticed the same thing and we discussed ways to make me feel more comfortable to get the most out of my placement. Throughout the rest of this placement I was spending more time on cloud 9 than in the earth’s stomach and it felt AMAZING! I’m going to carry this feeling over to my final placement and then onto my first job.
If I was going to give some advice about placement for those who get affected easily by low confidence it would be:
- Talk to your educator – I never spoke to my educator about my confidence as I preferred wearing the smile so people thought everything was okay. If I could go back I would talk to all of mine to tell them how my confident affects me and discuss strategies to not let my confidence affect me. It could be anything like telling them that you’d prefer it if they ask you questions away from patients, or lead an assessment when you feel ready and not when they think you’re ready.
- Reflect – A reflection doesn’t have to be on that assessment that wasn’t logical or quick and needs a lot of improving. It can be on helping a stroke victim to do a safe sit to stand for the first time and how it made you felt. I write a reflective diary everyday whilst on placement and write one good thing I did and one area of improvement. It’s a confidence boost when you are able to identify positives from your day.
- Ask for feedback – Some physios don’t willingly give feedback so ask for it. Feedback isn’t always negative and it’s a boost when someone says that you did something well. Also ask for feedback in writing. Over the years you will forget something that is said to you but if its written on a piece of paper you can always refer to you’ll never forget it
- Talk to the student – About anything. Build a bond with them so if the student has a problem they feel comfortable talking to you about it. But you also have to….
- Listen to the student – There’s no point in the student telling you how they feel and you not taking it on board. They might feel like they’ve wasted their time and you don’t care about anything they’re finding difficult. This isn’t going to help with their confidence.
- Take time out – Sit down with the student and talk about their placement. It can be every day for 10 minutes or once a week for 30 minutes. This way they’ll feel like they can talk to you and that you’re interested in their experience. Students don’t like it when they’re chasing around their educator, they feel like a hindrance.
- Help them with their confidence – If they prefer you watching from afar then do it and don’t stand on top of them. If you create an action plan with them stick to it. It can be hard being a student with low confidence and you feel like there is a lot more pressure on you than there actually is. Anything to relieve that pressure is welcomed.
‘There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think’.
Georgie Payne
3rd Year Physiotherapy Student
@GeorgiePayne93