Sydney Life

After finishing my last working day at Lithgow Hospital last week, I have become nostalgic and felt like reflecting on a few things that full time work has taught me:

1) Working with other personalities can be a challenge: I have been working in a remarkably small physio department at Lithgow Hospital for the past 6 months. It consists of 4 full time staff, and 3 part timers. When one person is sick, and another on annual leave, that could potentially leave only 2 people in the office. And that also means you kind of have to get on with them. There is no real way of avoiding those other 3 colleagues. Luckily in my case, I really really really hit it off with the other staff members (well, there was that one physio who didn’t quite understand my sense of humour!) I always remember hating group work at uni because there were always those people who never pulled their weight, and then inevitably left the work for me or another dedicated soul. In my job it’s not so much group assignments that we have to do together, but we have to learn to live together for 8 hours every day. Perhaps uni would be better off doing a Big Brother type of assignment where you are forced to communicate, cooperate and live with each others annoying habits!

2) How to cook Indian food: Two of the other physios I work with happen to be born and bred in India. Once again, being a small environment, there are no secrets. Especially when it comes to the culinary delights of a vegetable curry. The department was one where everyone gives and takes from their bank of knowledge and experience. Not only did I learn how to cook Indian, but my knitting skills have gone from non existent, to "I’m a proud owner of a beautiful hand made beanie"!! The other members of staff were all suitably treated to some traditional Jewish foods.

3) Uni only teaches you so far, and you do the rest. Getting a job was particularly easy for me. In fact, the only other way for it to be easier was if they had ESP and just offered me a job without me lifting a pen! The hospital did not need to check my marks. Or my knowledge or skills. They just accepted me because I was a physio graduate. But if I want to be good at my job, it requires some effort on my behalf. Whether it be looking up little things I don’t know at home after work, asking my colleagues clinical questions, or actively learning from physios around me, the learning process continues exponentially at work.

My first 6 months as a new graduate has been quite an experience….and I can’t wait for the next 6 months!!