October 2012.pdf - Health Sciences - Curtin University

9STUDENT SECTIONPHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES AT AUSTRALIANUNIVERSITY GAMES 2012“Overall, everyone involved had a memorableweek and in particular we had an invaluableexperience as physiotherapy students. Wewould recommend this event to next year’sgroup of final year physiotherapy students.”The Australian University Games (AUG) areAustralia’s largest annual multi sport eventinvolving Universities from all states ofAustralia. The event was held in Adelaide fromSeptember 23 -28 2012. Curtin University’ssquad included approximately 100 athletescompeting in nearly one dozen sports.As part of our final year of studies, five Curtinphysiotherapy students travelled to thegames with the Curtin University team toprovide sports trainer and physiotherapyservices including taping and massage for theweek.In order to provide this service at the AUG asignificant amount of equipment was requiredand as a result we completed somefundraising. We sold over 1000 chocolatesand with the help of some generous sponsors,Australian Physiotherapy Equipment,Australian Physiotherapy Association andBeiersdorf, we were able to buy the necessaryequipment to provide the Curtin team with anexcellent sports trainer service.Prior to the games, we attended trainingsessions for various sporting teams to assistwith warm up, cool down, recovery and injuryprevention strategies. We also developed aseries of educational resources and presentedseminars on selected health topics to CurtinRecreation Services staff. Post UniversityGames are currently composing a riskassessment report covering recommendationsand preventative measures for the sports wewere involved with at the AUG.Over the games week we conducted aphysiotherapy clinic each morning from 7-8am and 5-7pm each evening to providecompetitors with sports trainer assistance preor post games, particularly athletes who didnot have a physiotherapy student with themduring the day. Throughout the day wetravelled with our allocated sporting teams orindividual competitors to provide them withsports trainer services. These included sportssuch as netball, handball, soccer, rowing,ultimate frisbee, taekwondo and hockey.Special congratulations go to the women’snetball and mixed volleyball teams forwinning gold and to the taekwondo androwing competitors for their silver medals atthe Games.This placement allowed us to travel with asporting squad and work in a competitiveteam environment. It provided us with theopportunity to apply hands on physiotherapyskills and gain real-life experience. Overall,everyone involved had a memorable week andin particular we had an invaluable experienceas physiotherapy students. We wouldrecommend this event to next year’s group offinal year physiotherapy students.By Jacinta Dwyer & Karen Rodgers4th year students; Emma Norman, Stephanie Price,Casey Melville, Jacinta Dwyer and Karen RodgersMake tomorrow better.9Physiotherapy.curtin.edu.au© Curtin University, School of Physiotherapy Quarterly Newsletter October Edition 2012