FACULTY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SCIENCES

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Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences
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What our students say

Pip Nott, 36, on the MSc Rehabilitation

“I go back to work feeling I’ve got ideas, I’m forward-thinking,” says Pip.


MSc Rehabilitation student Pip Nott

“I’m studying the MSc Rehabilitation part-time over two years, and am currently near the end of the first year.

“I work full-time as a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist in Trauma and Orthopaedics at the Royal London Hospital. I lead a team of seven physiotherapists and assistants, working with in-patients who’ve had musculo-skeletal trauma - from breaks and injuries to joint replacement surgery. I’ve been there about six years now.”

What attracted you to this course?

“For a long time I thought I should do a masters, but kept putting it off because none of the courses I’d seen really fitted what I wanted to learn. What’s always interested me, and what I felt I didn’t know enough about, was why we do what we do, in terms of policy. Then I saw this course on the website and thought it seemed more for me, so I sent a couple of emails and came in to speak to a tutor. Within ten minutes I was convinced!

“Fortunately I also succeeded in convincing my boss. My studies are part-funded by my employer and I also receive a grant from my Chartered Society of Physiotherapy specialist interest group.”

How are you finding the course?

“Really interesting. This year I’ve been focusing on policy and practice in rehabilitation, which explores the history of the policy framework that drives what we’re doing, the evidence on which it is based, and where policy is going and how it could influence my practice – not just with patients, but also how we organise things, how we measure what we do, and how we use patient input and feedback to drive services differently.”

Is the course directly relevant to your work? Are you able to apply what you’re learning?

“Absolutely. My first assignment was a complex case study and I chose a major trauma patient I’d struggled with in terms of understanding and giving him what he needed in order to get better. It was very interesting as there was a lot of exploration and discussion around the therapist-patient relationship, which brought to light ways in which the therapist can ‘impose’ their views on patients without realising that’s what they’re doing, which then leads to a negative response from the patient. It helps you to question the way you approach things and think about things from the perspective of patients. It can be quite challenging at first as you begin to see weaknesses in your current ways of doing things, but then you start to develop ideas for change and improvements.

“My next assignment is about proposing a service change, and I’ve already started to try to apply that in my practice. It’s around patient-centred goal setting. I sat down with my team yesterday to talk about what patients think of, and want from, their healthcare. We then looked at where we may or may not be currently achieving that, how we measure it, and how we might improve.

“We’ve also looked at how to critically analyse research papers and different research methods. It’s helped me to have more confidence in reviewing the research evidence and how that applies to my practice.”

What are your fellow students like?

“There’s a great mix of people on the course, including some overseas students who bring a fresh approach from different healthcare systems around the world. We also have people from the UK who work for charities rather than the NHS and again that’s very interesting, finding out how they do things. It’s great to learn about different successful approaches that others are taking.

Image of students working together“As students, we work together and support each other. We meet up and talk about assignments and how we’re going to handle them, then we share our work-in-progress so we can critique each other’s work and help each other through it. This is encouraged by the tutors as part of the learning and sharing process.”

How about your tutors?

“I’ve felt very supported by the tutors so far. They’re always happy for you to email them with any questions. Last week I had a meeting with a tutor to run through my ideas for a research project and get some feedback and suggestions, which was really useful.

“In addition to our tutors, we regularly have lectures from a variety of external speakers, which is really stimulating. Today we had a Chief Executive from the YMCA who talked about an approach to changing services for young people. We’ve also had someone from the Alzheimer’s Society talking about the development of dementia strategies and services. These talks are well planned and timed, as they raise issues we need to think about for our next assignments, and consider in our practice.”

How have you found balancing work and study?

“I come to university for lectures one day a week, on a Thursday. I’m usually quite enthused after that so I’ll pop to the library for an hour or two to do some more work.

“When you get to a certain point in your career, I think that a day ‘away’ doing something different to stimulate your own thought processes is very beneficial. It reinvigorates your sense of what you’re here for, renews your sense of purpose. I look forward to Thursdays and relish having that time. I go back to work feeling I’ve got ideas, I’m forward-thinking.”

What advice would you give to others considering the course?

“I’d highly recommend it. Even if you don’t feel able to commit to a masters, I’d recommend just taking one or two of the modules on a standalone basis. I know some people who’ve done that, then ended up signing up for the full qualification, but you don’t have to do that, you can take it at your own pace.”