The Tales of Osteopathy Students

This week we have the absolute joy of interviewing one of our cohort, Mr Andrew Saunders. Andrew previously qualified as an osteopath way back when and shares with us his insights into the difference in the courses.Andrew shares with us about his life in between osteopathy and his exciting plans for the future.

This week we are back with a MEDICAL STORY TIME! Recently in the news you may have seen that the first womb transplant took place in the UK in February this year and of course we could not resist taking a deep dive into it.We talk a bit about the first transplant in the UK, along with some of the risks and complications and the first baby born from a womb transplant which took place in Sweden in 2014.

This week we talk through a summary of all of the different subjects we covered over our 4th year along with a bit about assessments. Discussion pathology, NMS (neuromuscular system), neurology, pain science, research and enquiry, technique, rehab and professionalism. It's been a busy year! We finish off the episode with a few of our absolute fave food and drink spots near uni. Because we all secretly know that this is a food podcast.

We are back and talking about all things clinic. We discuss our experience of assessments throughout the academic year, Chelsea's experience of working in some of the specialists clinics and our top tips for anyone going into clinic, whether you are observing  or starting to take the lead.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope you've had a wonderful Christmas break. This week we start of with a round up of term 1 of year and end up deep in discussion around the moral complexities of being a practionner. Chelsea and V chat about Chelsea's Christmas clinic block and their ideas for their future clinic design. Along with having an interesting discussion around patient boundaries, gift giving and thoughts around working on your own compared to working with a team of osteopaths.

This week we are attempting to uncomplicate all of the spondylollylolilololsis. We touch on spondylosis, spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. Discussing prevalence, grades and management plans. We also talk about Chelsea's experience at the UCO graduation ceremony.

This week Chelsea and V talk to Dr Oliver Thomson PhD. Prior to his studies as an Osteopath, Oliver also has a Master' degree in Sports and Exercise Rehabilitation from St Mary’s University, and then gained his PhD in osteopathy in 2013 from the Clinical Research Centre for Health Professions at the University of Brighton. He also works as an Associate Professor at the University College of Osteopathy, where he leads the PhD course . He is one of a very small number of osteopaths awarded a Professorship title in the UK and worldwide, and Dr Thomson is considered one of the leading authorities on osteopathic practice and research.

This week we have another... MEDICAL STORY TIIIIME! This week it's V's turn and as you can imagine, Chelsea is horrified. V tell's us all about the ancient Egyptian mummification process and corpse medicine. It is as horrible as it sounds. 

It's MEDICAL STORY TIIIIIIME! After a big hiatus, medical story time is BACK and with a bang. This week we are talking about mesh implants also known as transvaginal tape. We also talk about Lisa Megginson who has donated her mesh implant to the surgeon's hall museum in Edinburgh to help raise awareness of the side effects that some women have suffered from having these implants.

This week Chelsea and V have another guest, Danny Miller. Danny is a practice educator at the UCO clinic, a practicing Osteopath in Wandsworth and is currently completing a PhD in Health psychology. We talk about Danny's background in the finance world and what led him to osteopathy along with some classic Danny wisdom and his top clinic tips.

It's another speedy speed pathology episode, this week Chelsea talks about Temporal arteritis, also known as giant cell arteritis. It's a medical emergency so if you think your patient may have this then you need to refer them to A&E quickly. We discuss clinical signs and symptoms, along with risk factors and treatment.

This week we are back with another pathology, Peripheral Arterial Disease, to continue our cardiovascular series.We'd highly recommend checking out the clinical handbook "Mind the Gap" which highlights how clinical signs and symptoms can appear differently on black and brown skin, essential reading for any clinician: https://www.blackandbrownskin.co.uk/mindthegap 

We've just had a weekend at uni so feeling slight delirious with brains full of information! This week we talk about our experience of uni this weekend including working on the occipitoatlanto joint, starting to think about our final project for research, pain science and rehab lessons. We also chat about our time in clinic this week. Our main focus today is on solo practitioner safety. Whether you are an osteopath or other healthcare practitioner that hires a space and works alone, then safety is a big consideration. We talk about some of the things to be aware of, along with a few tips to keep yourself safe.

This week we are back on the pathology / pathophysiology train. We will be exploring pathologies from a more clinical context as this is what will help support us with our studies (and hopefully yours) going forward.We start off with atherosclerosis, which is the process of depositing lipids in the artery walls and hardening of these walls which in turn can cause cardiovascular disease. We discuss the risk factors, co-morbidities, clinical signs and symptoms, prevention and treatment.References:Our university lecturesNICE guidelines Differential Diagnosis for Physical Therapists the 6th Edition by Catherine Goodman

It's week two of the clinic block and both Chelsea and V are very very tried. We have a guest summary of their week in clinic from the wonderful Andrew Saunders, who we will be talking to in a full episode at a later date. Along with Chelsea's top tips for what you need in clinic.

Chelsea and V have just spent two weeks at the UCO clinic for their summer block. At the end of each day, they record a brief summary of their experience to give you an insight into life at the uni clinic and as part of reflective practice. We hope you enjoy our very tired ramblings.

After a big old hiatus, Chelsea and V are back. This week they talk about how they found the 3rd year of their degree, what was great and not so great and some top tips for any of those starting their 3rd year this September.

This week it's the return of medical story time! V tells us all about the thalidomide scandal of the late 1950s and early 1960s that effected countless families across Europe. Along with the story of one incredible woman Dr Frances Kelsey who single handedly managed to stop the drug ever hitting the US market and potentially saved thousands of lives.

This week we have our first ever non-osteopath or osteopathic student on the podcast! With the mountain of knowledge that we have to learn during this degree, we decided to get some help from outside of the profession and spoke to Chelsea's partner, Jack Martin, who is currently doing a PGCE. As someone who is literally training in how to teach students, he provided us with some amazing ideas on how to learn and retain information. As we have a lot of self study to do, where we have to be our own teacher, Jack suggested the idea of having "teacher days" and "learner days". Teacher days, where you are collecting all of your assets and planning, learner days where you just learner. It turns out the key to learning is making it fun.We absolutely loved talking to Jack and are now full of ideas and itching to get studying.You can check out all of Jack's creative projects here: http://jackariah.com/

This week Chelsea and V talk about their mock OSPE, ideas on how to manage exam stress and attempt to name the 17 muscles attached to the shoulder blade.Plus V lets us into her secret magical world of Michelin star worthy food creations.