Carlie is a physiotherapist who has a career in neurorehabiltation and pediatrics and a passion for global health. When a wrist injury temporarily stopped her clinical practice, she went looking for a masters program that would continue her professional development.
“I considered doing a masters in global health, but the reason I chose rehab sciences is because an expert in global health advised me to focus on being the best at what I already do. If you are a PT, become a better PT and share that globally. ” With the MRSc, Carlie found she could do both; becoming a better PT with a expanded range of relevant skills, and adapting her learning, assignments and major project to her interest in global health.
Carlie had a lot to share about how her practice, both locally and internationally, developed through doing her masters:
“The quality of my clinical and volunteer work improved because of the masters… There is a lot of information in our field, of course there are still some gaps where we need more, but there is a lot available now that we can access and use to make sure what we do is effective… Throughout the program evidence based practice was always in the forefront of my mind- both for my international and my local clients. I was more critical after doing my masters – in a good way. What we were doing? Were we meeting needs? Making change? Was it measurable? I was aware of this before the masters, but I became more practiced and I had more confidence in evaluating clients and programs, and using effective measurement, in assessing change, conducting program evaluations and implementing programs, professional writing skills and in applying for proposals.”
“The best aspect of the program was the ability to do projects that were of interest. If there was something I wanted to improve at work, I could put in the time to research it, write it up [as a class assignment], and I got great feedback. I then took it back to work and implemented it.” Carlie applied what she learned in RHSC 509 during a 6-month volunteer position in Haiti half way through her MRSc. “My position in Haiti as a teacher in a rehabilitation program opened to me because of doing the masters and the confidence I had because of what I learned… I taught a course for Rehabilitation Assistants. I pulled from various courses around Canada, created and taught one for our Haitian students. I had a lot more skills in terms of teaching in rehabilitation that I didn’t have before the MRSc”. When Carlie returned to her studies, she wrote a magazine article about her experience for RHSC 581, which she is planning on submitting for publication.
When asked why other physiotherapists should consider the program, Carlie had this to say: “For PTs it expands our horizons. We tend to be great at what we do with our hands and many are good at evidence based practice, but I now have teaching, writing, research skills as well, and this just allows me to do so many more things and improve the quality of my clinical work.”
– By Theresa McElroy