Career information: physiotherapist

citizenerased1

Hi does anyone know any good alternative entry routes for a career in physiotherapy?:eek:

pleaase help!

chocgirl

What kind of background are you coming from?

citizenerased1

chocgirl wrote: »

What kind of background are you coming from?

I'm thinking general science courses in like trins or Ucd or that with physiology in the last years

chocgirl

citizenerased1 wrote: »

I'm thinking general science courses in like trins or Ucd or that with physiology in the last years

Ok well if you had science from either colleges it would give you a good shot at gaining entry as a mature student in Ireland. Obviously it's a long road but you might get some exemptions particularly if you had physiology.

There's a cert course in Carlow, health science and physiology I think. A lot of Irish students do this to get into college in the UK, it seems to be well respected and appears to nearly always secure a place in degree programmes in the UK. It won't help here though, you'd still have to go through CAO.

If you have a basic degree, you could also do the accelerated masters in the UK, 2 year intensive programme, the jury is still out though on how the course compares to the degree but shorter route.

There is talk of an accelerated masters in UCD that is starting up but I don't know if this is true and what kind of applicants they may accept.

Hope that helps.

citizenerased1

And whats the craic with a mature student could i do a slightly accelerated course??:)

i saw that but to be honest im not too pushed on England how and ever its an option....

chocgirl

No, generally speaking, you'd have to do the full four year course, well in Ireland anyway. It's unlikely that you'd have covered all the subjects in any one year in whatever you were studying previously. If you had done physiology or anatomy or whatever you wouldn't have to redo the exams in these though, you'd probably get exempt depending on how well you did:).

The accelerated courses are actually masters, pretty much full time, no holidays for two years.

Larianne

There are two students in my college who have Physiology backgrounds and skipped 1st year in college - except for Anatomy and Clinical Anatomy subjects which they have to do along with all their 2nd yr subjects.

I wouldn't go down the accelerated route as I don't think it gives you a proper grounding in core subjects like musculoskeletal. That's just my opinion though.

There's another course in Sligo IT - Physiology with Health Science which you could think about doing either. And progressing from there maybe as a mature student?

There's also Physiotherapy at Uni of Ulster if you don't want to cross the Irish Sea.

citizenerased1

Larianne wrote: »

There are two students in my college who have Physiology backgrounds and skipped 1st year in college - except for Anatomy and Clinical Anatomy subjects which they have to do along with all their 2nd yr subjects.

I wouldn't go down the accelerated route as I don't think it gives you a proper grounding in core subjects like musculoskeletal. That's just my opinion though.

There's another course in Sligo IT - Physiology with Health Science which you could think about doing either. And progressing from there maybe as a mature student?

There's also Physiotherapy at Uni of Ulster if you don't want to cross the Irish Sea.

Thanks Larianne thats what i was wondering ...

I would agree about the accelerated route!

so id be lookin at 7 years college? :S

Larianne

If you want it bad enough you'll do whatever it takes!!

Dublin2Physio

citizenerased1 wrote: »

Thanks Larianne thats what i was wondering ...

I would agree about the accelerated route!

so id be lookin at 7 years college? :S

and thats with no guarantee of employment at the end of it!
At the moment entry level positions are virtually non-existent and from what i've heard this appears to be a cyclical trend in physio employment. So by the time you are out it may be a similar situation again!!!

Something else to consider would be to go and do medicine and specialise in sports or orthopedics. If I was doing it all again I think I would do that instead

Larianne

Dublin2Physio wrote: »

Something else to consider would be to go and do medicine and specialise in sports or orthopedics. If I was doing it all again I think I would do that instead

Can I ask why you suggest that? Is it because you think there are more job opportunities or you think it would be more interesting?

Dublin2Physio

I think there are probably more employment opportunities out there but then again residencies are highly competitive in these fields so it might balance out in the long run.

The other aspect is that often people enjoy working in specialities that they wouldn't have considered previously. While physio gives you a good foundation in cardio resp, neuro and musculoskeletal you get to try out more specialities while training for medicine. For example a friend of mine never dreamed that they would enjoy specialising in urology!

citizenerased1

Dublin2Physio wrote: »

I think there are probably more employment opportunities out there but then again residencies are highly competitive in these fields so it might balance out in the long run.

The other aspect is that often people enjoy working in specialities that they wouldn't have considered previously. While physio gives you a good foundation in cardio resp, neuro and musculoskeletal you get to try out more specialities while training for medicine. For example a friend of mine never dreamed that they would enjoy specialising in urology!

Wow never thought of that...unfortunatly i missed the H-pat....how would i get in2 that?

chocgirl

chocgirl wrote: »

Ok well if you had science from either colleges it would give you a good shot at gaining entry as a mature student in Ireland. Obviously it's a long road but you might get some exemptions particularly if you had physiology.

There's a cert course in Carlow, health science and physiology I think. A lot of Irish students do this to get into college in the UK, it seems to be well respected and appears to nearly always secure a place in degree programmes in the UK. It won't help here though, you'd still have to go through CAO.

If you have a basic degree, you could also do the accelerated masters in the UK, 2 year intensive programme, the jury is still out though on how the course compares to the degree but shorter route.

There is talk of an accelerated masters in UCD that is starting up but I don't know if this is true and what kind of applicants they may accept.

Hope that helps.

My friend's looking at the Carlow course too, seems like a good one to consider. Only 4 years total (2 in Ireland, 2 in England) afaik.

chocgirl

Deleted User wrote: »

My friend's looking at the Carlow course too, seems like a good one to consider. Only 4 years total (2 in Ireland, 2 in England) afaik.

I hope not, as far as I'm aware the Carlow course is used for entry into a UK physio course only, you'd still have to do the four year degree so six years in total!