Written by Suzanne Rath, Practice Principal Physiotherapist, Wellness Embodied Cairns.

You’re reading a blog on a physiotherapy site and therefore we can assume that you’re a pretty health literate member of the population, or perhaps even a fellow health professional.

But if you think you know every area that physiotherapists work in, think again…

At the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s Business and Leadership Conference in Darwin this year, speakers from health insurance companies and representatives of the physiotherapy profession pointed out that policy makers don’t actually know what physiotherapists do, much less members of the public. But one area which you probably do know about is sports physiotherapy.

Sports:  Ah, the glamour. So many physiotherapists enter the profession hoping to work in sports, despite the long hours, exposure to the elements and the level of volunteering/ luck/ contacts needed to make it to the top. Most I knew went down totally different paths in the end- neurology, paediatrics, etc. Many top sports physiotherapists will possess a further post-grad qualification in Sports Medicine (I do), or Sports Physiotherapy.

Your grandmother with arthritis in her knee probably won’t benefit from seeing the Wallabies team physiotherapist anymore than she will from going to an empathetic private physio who ‘gets her’ and can assess and treat her specific problems- in reality, the injuries sustained by sports people are the same as the everyday sprains, strains, breaks and other musculoskeletal issues which we treat in private practice. Through my time working in sports I honed the ability to triage and then diagnose and treat injuries quickly- ‘Should she go to hospital right now?’, ‘Should he come off the field?’, ‘Can they be taped up to play on as they’re the team’s most important player and it’s a grand final’.

My time travelling with teams as the only healthcare practitioner meant dealing with lots of ‘medical issues’ – management of inhalers, anti-inflammatories and otherwise (including knowing what was on the banned drugs list, as well as who was allergic to what), cleaning and dressing wounds, relocating dislocated shoulders and noses. Lots of fun stuff, which in general private practice I normally see after they’ve been to Emergency. But if you have just injured yourself and you’re not in a state of medical emergency, please feel free to come and see a physio as your first port of call.