My name is Daniel and I am a 4th year Kinesiology student at the University of Guelph-Humber. As part of the curriculum for my degree, I was required to complete two field placements, one in 3rd year and one in 4th year. The program allows students to gain more than 200 hours of workplace experience through chosen placements in the health and fitness industry, clinical, rehabilitation setting, education or research. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic my journey of finding a placement for the semester looked a little different than expected but I would not have had it any other way.
I reached out to Dr. Marco DeCiantis at the Sports Specialist Rehab Centre and had the privilege to work with him through a virtual placement from September – December 2020. Although our time together was completely remote, the learning experience was tremendous. We met 3x a week over Zoom in which Marco mentored me on various aspects of being a clinical professional. He guided me through providing quality patient care, and how to effectively diagnose and treat various conditions. Through our discussions, he familiarized me with consultations, assessments and patient care. He truly gave me insight into the day to day work of being a health care professional. He consistently provided me with learning objectives to complete on my own time to further my knowledge on the topics discussed. Usually, this involved researching different conditions, symptoms and treatment methods. An example would be us discussing scenarios that are deemed Red or Yellow flags, examples of contraindications, and discussing the importance of consent. Furthermore, he discussed and educated me on clinician protocols such as patient history, orthopedic neurological examinations, motor/reflex testing etc.
Another component of my placement occurred every Wednesday for 1 hour. Marco gave me the opportunity to sit in on meetings for a volunteer program that aims to provide sustainable healthcare to rural under-serviced populations through education and training. The meetings consisted of approxiimately 10 clinicians from Canada and Africa in which we would provide education to the health officers regarding various conditions, treatments and tools to improve their skills in the healthcare field. We would routinely go through clinical rounds and work through cases with them creating informative presentations. This sparked discussions on formulating diagnosis, treatment plans and educating patients. Marco would then have me investigate further into cases on my own time to see if I could help with the scenarios. I learned all about conditions varying from mechanical back pain, ankle sprains and fractures all the way to infectious diseases. That portion of the placement was by far my favorite and really provided me with a different perspective on worldwide healthcare. To have the opportunity to virtually meet with health officers in Africa was an unmatched experience. Working with Marco greatly furthered my education and I am very happy with how my semester proceeded.