Roles

Reflection about a valued role held and how this may of changed over time

My first role as a gym instructor was really appealing. The first few clients I had appointments with were referrals from their GPs. They all camepoor health both physically and mentally. I had to devise individual programmes that suited them and they enjoyed. Their morale was low so I needed to put a plan together that would be easy for them to achieve so to let them get a feeling of fulfilment out of their exercise and in turn allow to gain better all round fitness. I needed to keep reviewing them and keep what they were doing as motivating as possible. It was up to me to bring some enthusiasm to their exercise regimes.

My responsibilities responsible changed when I decided to move on to become a Sports Masseur. I found this job very satisfying. It was extremely rewarding to provide physical pain relief to people that came to me to improve their quality of life. The other aspect of my role to some of the older individuals was to be someone for them to talk to, in some instance the only person they had contact with. I had to be very calming to one particular service user who was extremely nervous but had been advised to come for regular back massages for an old injury. I then decided to broaden my prospects and thought the best way to do this was by volunteering for work experience.

My position transformed when I started work at my local hospital. The first few days were in the Physiotherapy department were very different. I was assisting the therapist most of the time rather than directly assisting the clients. I was less connected with the clients and more involved in making sure all the tools the therapist required were easily accessible for them when they were manipulating the patients. In the last few days I did get to work with a few children one eight and one twelve. They were both having Physiotherapy for different injuries. My function then was to make the exercises fun and...