Meet Stephanie, one of our consultant physiotherapists at the Trust. We asked her to share her career journey and her highlights along the way.

My role is a mixture of leadership, clinical work, education, management and research.  The amount of time spent on each area varies depending on current development projects. 

My clinical interests are mainly in the upper limb speciality which is where my Master of Philosophy and Doctorate work were focused, but I am also interested in referred pain, diagnosis and clinical reasoning. 

I lead the Musculoskeletal (MSK) specialist service which is made up of a large multidisciplinary specialist MSK team staffed primarily by extended scope physiotherapists (ESP) or advance practice physiotherapists (APPs) and medics. Much of my leadership aims to develop and support this team.

More recently I have taken on leadership for the Community Rehab teams - which is a new challenge - and I hope to work together to develop better pathways in areas such as frailty, where working together could provide better patient outcomes. 

I have always wanted to be a physiotherapist. 

I qualified in 1989 and initially loved working with Stroke patients and thought this would be my specialist area.  However, after undertaking a band 6 rotation in accident and emergency (A&E) I became interested in musculoskelatal (MSK) work and found new areas of interest; particularly the diagnosis of acute and referred pain. 

I progressed through a range of MSK outpatient roles and then took a little time out from work to move to Canada to ski for a few seasons. there, I worked voluntarily for the local ski rescue team where I developed skills in acute trauma management. However, I missed the building of those relationships that develop when you work in a rehab role, so when I returned to England I went straight back to a band 7 post in MSK. 

I became an extended scope physiotherapist in 2001 in Bristol, when the role was in its early stages. Along the way I worked in sport, travelling all over the world with swimmers and athletes which is where my interest in shoulder pathology began. I worked trackside and at many international games including the Paralympics in Atlanta and Sydney, and the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

I moved to a role at Birmingham University in 2003 to develop my teaching and research skills but I missed the clinical work and so I took up a part-time Consultant Physiotherapy post in 2005 to complement the University position. 

I finally moved to my current Consultant Post in Ealing in 2008 and finished my doctorate in 2013.  I have had many jobs since 1989, each time I moved it was to gain different clinical expertise or a specific experience that I felt would help me work towards my goal of Consultant Physiotherapist. 

My passion for clinical work is the reason why I chose the Consultant route career pathway. 

However, the skills that enabled me to get to this position are centered around reflection, reflexivity, flexibility, persistence and hard work.  Reflection enables an ability to review what went well or badly and how to change. 

I think reflexivity enables your own personal and emotional growth and that of those around you which is key in leadership.  I think I also have the ability to be flexible, and an understanding that you have to put in much more effort than you could possibly imagine to get to the right outcome. 

When I first started in a leadership role my boss once told me that she appointed me because I possessed 3 of the key skills required to be a good leader, which she called the 3Ps; pragmatism, persistence, patience. 

Though there are a few pivotal moments in my career, I think one that stands out is the point during my doctoral studies when I really started to understand the true meaning of critical appraisal.  Although I started this journey during my Masters level study, the input, support and constructive criticism I had from my doctoral supervisor really helped me to develop a deeper-level understanding. This was really a turning point in my approach to teaching and research, and without his constructive criticism I would not have been able to understand what was really required to complete the doctoral journey.

 

One important impact has been to show and promote the idea that advance practice muskuloskeletal (MSK) physiotherapists can work competently and safely at an advanced practice level, and that they provide a valuable and cost-effective service which provides good outcomes for patients. 

In 2017/2018 the Ealing Joint Strategic Needs Assessment reviewed MSK care and showed that Ealing had the 4th lowest spend on back pain procedures in the UK. This was supported by the MSK specialist service, which provided quality assessment, fast access to appropriate imaging advanced level community treatment options such as epidural, neurosurgical input and expert advice in the community.  The opportunity to see the team develop into one which provides assessment and interventions which were previously available in the world of physiotherapy is very rewarding for myself and those involved. 

I have shown that with ongoing support and training, advance practice physiotherapists can consistently and safely work at the top of their license, and develop the expertise to enable them to provide the best possible clinical care.