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- Hello and welcome to this presentation
about physiotherapy.
My name is professor Prue Morgan,
and I'm head of Physiotherapy
at Monash University.
What is a physiotherapist?
Physiotherapists are people
who play many important roles
in health service delivery.
Most commonly physiotherapists
assist people with
movement problems that may
occur after disease or injury.
They also promote health to
avoid disease and injury.
Physiotherapists might
work in a private practise
or public and private
hospitals, community centres,
rehabilitation facilities,
sports clubs and organisations,
schools, major businesses,
or they may work in policy
with the health departments.
Some of you may be very familiar
with the role of the physiotherapists.
Perhaps you've had a
sporting injury yourself.
However,
physiotherapy is much broader
than just sports injuries.
We work with a whole range
of different populations
from children with special
needs to adults recovering
after brain injury.
And we've also had a key
role to play in caring for
people in intensive care
unit who are recovering
after COVID-19.
We offered to entry to
practise qualifications
at Monash University.
A Bachelor of Physiotherapy with Honours,
which is an undergraduate
four year qualification
and a Doctor of Physiotherapy,
which is a graduate entry
three year qualification.
Why choose Monash physiotherapy?
At Monash University
you will learn relevant
physiotherapy content
from the very first day
that you are a physiotherapy student.
You get the best of both worlds.
Although the majority of
your course will be taught
on Peninsula campus,
you'll also have the
opportunity to experience
what we call big campus life
by engaging in activities
at Clayton campus.
Students enrol in only physiotherapy units
and therefore they form a
really tight knit cohort.
You get to know your
peers really, really well.
So you're not lost and wandering alone,
not knowing who's in your
class from year to year,
or even who's in your
class from day to day.
All of our staff are physiotherapists,
and they're great educators
with advanced clinical skills.
We're also well known for our exceptional
applied anatomy programme.
Why Monash physiotherapy?
As I said you learn about
physiotherapy conditions
from the very first week of your degree.
A lot of it is shaped around
the idea of a small group
or case based learning.
For example,
each week you would be presented
with a case of a patient
presenting to a physiotherapist.
In this example,
let's say a person has injured their knee
playing soccer on the Sunday.
Monday morning,
they present to you in
your private practise.
To be able to effectively
treat that patient,
you'd need to have a good
knowledge of the relevant anatomy
and biomechanics,
you'd need to have a good understanding
of the physiological responses to trauma
and how to assess the knee to determine
if there's been any
problem with the ligament
or any tear in the meniscus for example.
You'd need also to be able to learn about
what are the evidence based interventions
for knee rehabilitation
and how do I actually
deliver that treatment?
And finally you might touch
on some of the psychology
of return to sport.
All of that is delivered
within a single week.
So students get really very much involved
in the real life cases
that present to them
as a future physiotherapist.
A big component of our course
is all about practical skill development.
We have excellent facilities
that allow students
to really become very competent in working
with a range of different
pieces of equipment,
different techniques that
apply to different populations.
At Monash physiotherapy,
there are opportunities for you to do
rural health care education,
and we have really close
clinical partnerships
with all of the major health
services in Melbourne,
including Monash, Alfred,
and Peninsula Health.
There are some selective
options in final year,
where students might be
starting to think about
an area that they would like
to specialise in in the future,
such as sports physiotherapy,
Alfred Hospital Emergency Department,
or maybe you've got a
passion for paediatrics,
and you end up doing a selective
at the Royal Children's Hospital.
Let's now have a look at the details
of the Bachelor of Physiotherapy.
As I said before,
it's a four year full
time undergraduate degree,
no mid year intake,
And there's a cohort of
around about 100 students.
You need to be aware that
there's around about 20
or so contact hours per week,
plus additional self study time.
So think very carefully about your ability
to balance your other
extracurricular activities,
whilst continuing to study physiotherapy.
There are interprofessional
learning opportunities,
clinical placements across
years, two, three, and four,
and it's only offered at Peninsula campus.
The clinical education
where students learn under
the supervision of a qualified
physiotherapist in practise,
occurs predominantly
in year three and four.
And to engage with that content,
you would need to have a
satisfactory police check,
working with children check
and current immunizations completed.
You must have completed
VCE units three and four
with a study score of
at least 35 in English
or 30 in any other English,
and a study score of at
least 25 in any two of
chemistry, biology, math methods, physics,
and specialists maths,
and you need to be aiming for an ATAR
of around about the mid 90s.
If you are a non year 12 applicant,
you still need to
demonstrate that you meet
the VCE pre-requisites and
complete at least one year
of full-time tertiary study,
to enable us then to consider
your entire academic record
or grade point average.
A distinction average
should be your target
for any tertiary study.
And again,
recognising that it is a
competitive admission process.
If you have not met
the VCE pre-requisites,
successful completion in
pre-requisite VCE equivalent,
at a recognised tertiary
institution would be considered
comparable to VCE success
in those subjects.
For example,
Foundation Physics or biology I
would be considered
equivalent to year 12 studies.
Alternatively students may
choose required VCE units
at local TAFE or via Open
Universities Australia.
As I said before,
if in fact you are not
successful in getting in
on the basis of your VCE studies,
then we would recommend that
you complete at least one year
of full-time tertiary study
to try and demonstrate
your academic ability.
You obviously need to meet
the VCE pre-requisite units.
And in terms of what university
degree you should choose,
no specific degree will give
applicants and advantage
and you still need to apply through VTAC.
You should note the
credit for previous study
is rarely awarded.
However internal transfers
non-VTAC are available
for Monash students,
and the same criteria applies
in terms of pre-requisite
studies, et cetera.
So if you're looking for a pathway
into the Bachelor of Physiotherapy,
other than in through year 12,
we recommend that you undertake a course
that you have the best chance
of achieving a high GPA in,
study subjects that you'll enjoy
and therefore you'll be more
likely to perform well in
and demonstrate higher academic ability.
And finally undertake a course
that you'd be willing to continue,
should you be unsuccessful
in gaining entry
into physiotherapy.
A Doctor of Physiotherapy,
is a three year full time graduate degree.
It's a mid year intake,
and a cohort of around
about 60 or so students.
Similarly, around about 18 or so
contact hours per week
plus additional study time.
So again think very carefully about,
would you be able to manage that load?
And as well as the
development of entry-level
physiotherapy skills,
the Doctor of Physiotherapy
focuses on the development
of leadership, education
and advocacy skills.
There's both campus-based content
and early Work Integrated
Learning placements offered.
And again it's only offered
at the Peninsula campus.
Similar to the Bachelor Degree,
there's around about 1000
hours of clinical placements
and simulated clinical experience,
increasing as you progress
throughout the course.
In terms of selection into
the Doctor of Physiotherapy,
you would need an Australian
undergraduate degree
or equivalent in a relevant area of study
completed in the last 10 years.
For example, a Bachelor of Biomedical,
a Bachelor of Science,
and pre-requisites are
university-level study
in human anatomy, human
physiology, and biostatistics.
And again,
you should be aiming for a
distinction average minimum.
There's also requirements
around English language.
If you are an international student,
then please be aware of the
English language requirements
for entry into the course.
If you are unsuccessful
in your first attempt,
then we would strongly
encourage you to complete
an undergraduate degree
in a relevant discipline.
So health sciences, or
science or biomedical science,
aiming for an average grade at university
of at least 70 or more.
Meet pre-requisite study areas,
so those three subjects, anatomy,
physiology biostatistics.
Meet the English language requirement,
and then apply directly to Monash.
If you have not completed
the pre-requisite subjects
for either the Bachelor or
the Doctor of Physiotherapy,
then we are unable to
consider your application
until you've met those criteria.
When you do complete your qualification,
then you are registered to practise.
So certainly if you wanted to,
you could go home,
put out a sign out the front of your house
to say open for business,
subject to council approval of course,
but there is no need for
any additional internship
or any further supervised practise.
As soon as you finish the course,
you are registered to practise.
The Doctor of Physiotherapy
is quite a new programme here
at Monash University,
and so although we've got
provisional accreditation,
we'll finalise that accreditation process
when if graduates exit the course in 2023.
Thank you and we hope to
see you at Monash soon.
Stay tuned to get a taste of the skills
that you'll learn as a physiotherapist,
and chat with our staff and students.
