Meet Sue and Chris: Teaming up to train physical therapy students

Sue Abe and Chris Jagoe are both physiotherapists working at Scarborough Health Network - General Hospital. We asked them about their experience working together as Clinical Instructors to host physical therapy students during their clinical internships.

What clinical area of physiotherapy do you practice? 

Sue: I have been working here at Scarborough Health Network – General Hospital for almost 17 years. I started out working on the nephrology floor and moved to the surgical program within a year, so I've been doing medical surgery acute care for about 16 years. I work mostly with vascular surgical patients – lower limb amputations, bypass surgery and general surgery. 

Chris: My main area of practice is critical care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but I also cover both medicine and orthopaedics on weekends, as well surgery when Sue is away. I'm also the cardiorespiratory physiotherapist for paediatrics. Of course, if chaos reigns, I cover everything. 

How did you get involved with clinical teaching? 

Chris: For me it was quite simple – someone HAD to teach me on my placements, so it was obvious I had to give back. When I started, I took two students, but I found this seriously affected my ability to both teach and cover my caseload. For the next few years, I took one student at a time, which was easier to manage. Finally, I settled on sharing a student with Sue, as I found this gave me the right balance of teaching and working, while also allowing the student to see two different, but similar, areas of an acute care hospital. 

Sue: My manager at the time had been asked by the department of physical therapy if we could take placement students. I was interested in getting involved with teaching so I volunteered to take a student for one placement, and I enjoyed it, so I decided to keep going with it.  

I recalled from my own placements as a student that it was valuable to have actual ICU experience so I asked Chris if he would be willing to take on a student together so we could give them exposure to both medical surgery and ICU. 

It took some time to figure out the best way to share a student. We looked at doing one day fully on surgery, one day on ICU, but we realized it would be more difficult for the students to take on a patient case load. We decided the best way to balance it would be to do half the day on my unit and half the day on his unit. This gives the students half a case load on each unit, and it works really well. 

What aspects of being a clinical instructor do you find the most gratifying? Do you have a memorable moment from your experience you’d like to share? 

Chris: For me, the most gratifying part of being a clinical instructor is watching the student progress and improve throughout the placement; from learning which end of a stethoscope to stick in their ears, to finally diagnosing and giving effective treatment. It is pretty cool! 

As for memorable moments? Probably the several times I've "encouraged" a student to do CPR during a cardiac arrest. The best place to gain experience using CPR is in an ICU with doctors and nurses coaching you through it.   

Sue: I really enjoy watching students grow and learn from the first day they are here until the last. I enjoy watching their confidence grow and I learn when to step back a little bit more and give them more autonomy and freedom to make decisions and interact with patients on their own.  

Just the other day I had a nurse come up to me and say, “Your student is so fantastic, you’re doing a great job with her. She’s going to make a great physiotherapist.” That’s a testament to the student as well, but it’s very gratifying when nurses tell me the students are fitting into the unit and the nurses feel comfortable working with them. 

Why do you think it’s important for physiotherapists to help train future PTs? 

Sue: As an experienced clinician, I've worked in multiple areas of practice – I worked in private practice for eight years and then I worked in an acute stroke program and cardiac care for a couple of years before coming here. I feel with all my experience, I can pay it forward to the profession by taking on these students and helping to enhance their learning, giving them exposure to different types of practice. I have always believed that we, as clinicians, are obligated to teach students.  

Chris: Students need hands-on experience, plain and simple. Students can only learn so much from books and lectures. At some point they have to touch another human being who is in pain or distress to help them get better. Students need someone who has been-there-done-that to guide them and help them gain confidence.  

In what ways do you find volunteering as a clinical instructor helps with your own professional development? 

Sue: I really enjoy taking on students – I find it very rewarding and I always learn something new from every one of them. Health care changes so quickly and my students always show me new things and bring new ideas, so it enhances my practice, too. My students help me keep up with the most recent research. Sometimes if there’s a new tool we’re considering using, I get them to do some research on it and we work together to decide if it’s something we want to start using. 

Chris: It helps keep me on my toes and up-to-date. Sometimes a student will ask a question I've never considered, so we learn something together, hence the most used clinical instructor phrase: “That's an excellent question! Now, you go home and look that up, and you can tell me all about it tomorrow.”   

Join our team of volunteers

We are always looking for volunteers to help with clinical skills labs, small group facilitation and clinical placements! Are you a practicing physiotherapist interested in volunteering your time to support the education and development of our future colleagues? Email us at pt.reception@utoronto.ca and we will be in touch.