Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Professional practise Blog 7 Multidisciplinary Due Friday 29th October Hannah howley

Professional practise
Blog 7
Multidisciplinary
Due Friday 29th October
Hannah howley

What does it mean to be a massage therapist and a multi-disciplinary healthcare provider?

To me, being a massage therapist means being able to provide clients with the opportunity to come and get some sort of treatment in the way of reducing stress, relaxing and finding a way of being prepared mentally and physically pre and post event sport. Also, being involved and helping clients with goals and understanding of themselves is also very rewarding. I personally also feel strongly about working with in your own chosen field and abiding by the scope of practise that comes with it. I believe it is part of showing professionalism and being aware of your boundaries and what you are and are not allowed to do.

With regards to being a multidisciplinary provider, it all really depends on what scope of practise you are eligible to provide, where you work and what other types of healthcare professionals that you are connected with whether you are working with a group of other therapists or if you are in close contact with other therapists so that you can provide good referrals. There are some differences between being a CMT (certified massage therapist) and an RMT (remedial massage therapist). CMT’s mean that you are able to provide relaxation massages and an RMT is that of a remedial massage therapist so therefore can help with pain and immobility issues. In this case, the CMT wouldn’t try and fix clients injuries in much depth other than just tensional releases, whereas the RMT can do both and therefore be a referral or a helper to the CMT. So it’s kind of like we all sort of work together but sticking to what we know in our own field. Moreover, if you wanted to combine business or use an integrated practise with physiotherapist or such like, it is important to know their field, their scope of practise and to understand and respect their position as they will do likewise. For me, that is something that I am interested in looking in to – working at somewhere like Sports Med Otago, where they have Physiotherapists, nutritionists and sport massage therapists. This is the type of situation where you would be working in an integrated healthcare environment.

Integrated healthcare, cross-disciplinary and inter-professional healthcare are all words that pretty much mean the same thing but also sum up multidisciplinary provision where you are working in a place where there are several different types of therapists all with different scopes and codes.

Being an effective MDP would be you understanding your own scope of practise and respecting and understanding others and this can be achieved through research, dialogue and involvement and by research I mean finding out what they do differently and why? Being involved also, is something that is also beneficial because the more you are involved with something the more educated you are about it which is a good thing in the healthcare profession. It is important in an environment as important as that of the healthcare branch because you are dealing with people within your business and outside of your business and by outside I mean you have the power to make referrals and it is strongly beneficial if you have a good understanding of others and also effective communication skills. Overcoming barriers is also something else to look at with regards to being an effective MDP. As quoted from our notes “differences tend to act as barriers to understanding and relationships” states pretty well that if you don’t understand or respect others and there scopes of practise then it’ll be a pretty hard road ahead. The appreciation of differences is key.

The main point here that I am trying to get across is to understand all (or the ones relevant to you, but still just as important to know about the others) the different types of SoP’s. When you understand them you are able to work well with other practitioners, you’re able to ask them for help if you need to and you are able to refer your clients on where necessary.

So in summary of my discussion on the benefits of being involved with or being a multidisciplinary provider, I think it is an effective way of furthering your own profession and skills to make the most of your business and give the best service and be consistent throughout. Your clients come to you because they like who you are and they like your service so improving it isn’t going to do any harm.

References

Class Notes

My Own Thoughts

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Professional Practise Blog 6 Professional Development, reflective practise and supervision Due 23rd October Hannah Howley

Professional Practise
Blog 6
Professional Development, reflective practise and supervision
Due 23rd October
Hannah Howley

Professional practise isn’t just something that is given to you. It is a sub heading for several influencing factors of a professional practise. As a massage therapist yourself, it is important to be learning new things and keeping up to date at all times and also being vigilant and knowing what areas you need to work on and improve and also notice the things that you are doing well.

Being able to reflect well on what you are doing is a great attribute and skill. The reflective practitioner strives to develop self-awareness and improvement on their effectiveness. Developing awareness to reactions within your environment and the interactions that you have with others makes for effective communication. Being able to notice how your attitude and moods around clients and other staff members is a good thing to be able to notice. You affect others around you by your moods so it is important to know how to make this better. It also has a big part to do with continual clients. If they aren’t happy with you or your service they may not want to come back.

Once you are able to identify your strengths and weaknesses and what you are doing well and what you can do better you will be able to begin to improve and you will be on your way to being successful and professional. A few steps that could be taken to improve the massage practise would be;

- Writing up more thorough S.O.T.A.P forms and asking yourself what you did well in the session and what you could improve on
- Asking a supervisor for help and feedback on how you are doing
- Having good client feedback forms with questions relating to the bigger picture and not just comfort levels (however that still is important).
- Writing up in a diary or journal or something of how you performed overall before, during and after the massage session.


All of these things help to support your professional development in several ways. However it is still important to notice the things that you are doing well. Practise, select, describe, reflect research plan, alter, practise and monitor.

Notice what you’re not happy with and change it.

When it comes to supervision, I believe that it is an important aspect of you professional development. For example, in the clinical situation we have at polytech, we always have someone there to guide us and supervise us as we are not fully qualified yet. If u weren’t aware of a supervisor u might want to go with asking the NZ association of counsellors (NZAC) as they have a list of registered supervisors around the area. The NZ association of pyscotherapists (NZAP), depending on whether it is necessary and can be incredibly valuable but not really an expectation of the professional body however this may change. It’s about self development and has an impact on other people. I feel that it is important to be able to have these ‘guides’ in place or available for you to contact if you need to especially to watch over your practise and give you feed back. It also sets your mind to the fact that you have someone you can ask for help and that you are not alone in the business. Creates mind/body security.

To have a professional practise, it is important to keep up with and follow all codes of conduct as well as your own routine and the way you work. Being able to understand yourself and the way you learn is very helpful to becoming successful. It’s also important to keep up with MNZ and continue to further your training at all times where possible. Once qualified, it would be a good idea to sign with the RMT’s not only for legal tax reasons but to be able to further knowledge and gain points for it. Like Debbie has said in her blog, it would be a good idea to join the professional development policy which is run through MNZ. It would help gain awareness and further education and knowledge while gaining points.

In summary, all of the above all have a influencing factor on professional development. Being able to reflect on your processes and do something about them to create a positive and effective change is a great attribute and can really help to see you become successful. It all ensures that your business is maintained at the highest level of professional performance. It creates an understanding of yourself which therefore leads to people enjoying their experience when they come to you.