Practice

01 / 08

The core of my Staff Grade practice at one of Ireland's largest Model 4 teaching hospitals — autonomous physiotherapy assessment and treatment of acute inpatients across medical, surgical, orthopaedic and respiratory caseloads. Each patient receives an evidence-based plan that is progressed daily and oriented toward restored mobility, restored function, and a discharge that is both timely and safe.

• –Carry an autonomous acute caseload — subjective and objective assessment, clinical reasoning, goal-setting and treatment — without routine senior oversight.
• –Formulate and progress individualised rehabilitation plans that optimise mobility and function while safeguarding a timely, safe discharge.
• –Deliver respiratory, post-operative and neurological physiotherapy at the bedside as part of a busy multidisciplinary team.
• –Document assessment, progression and discharge planning to the standard expected of a CORU-registered physiotherapist in an acute setting.

02 / 08

Rehabilitation after stroke, brain injury and spinal cord injury — relearning movement, balance and independence through deliberate, graded repetition. The work is grounded in neuroplasticity: progress is measured in small, hard-won gains, and the plan is rewritten as the patient changes.

• –Assess and treat patients across stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury caseloads in acute and rehabilitation settings.
• –Apply principles of neuroplasticity through task-specific, high-repetition practice to rebuild movement, balance and functional independence.
• –Re-train sitting and standing balance, transfers and gait, progressing from bed mobility to assisted and then independent walking.
• –Integrate advanced modalities — including robotic walk-machine gait training — where they add value to neurological recovery.

03 / 08

Chest physiotherapy, breathing re-education and early mobilisation for acutely and critically ill patients — clearing secretions, protecting the airway and getting deconditioned bodies moving before weakness compounds. Detailed, vigilant work that frequently decides the trajectory of the whole recovery.

• –Deliver airway clearance and secretion management using positioning, manual techniques and breathing re-education.
• –Lead early mobilisation programmes for critically ill patients to counter ICU-acquired weakness and deconditioning.
• –Trained in respiratory physiotherapy techniques for the ICU patient and early mobility programmes for the critically ill.
• –Work within the critical-care multidisciplinary team to time intervention safely around the patient's physiological status.

04 / 08

Robotic walk-machine gait training to rebuild a normal walking pattern after neurological and traumatic injury. The robotics supply consistent, high-dose repetition of the gait cycle; the physiotherapist sets the parameters, reads the patient's response, and translates that repetition into real-world function.

• –Deliver robotic-assisted gait training as a structured, high-repetition adjunct to conventional neuro-rehabilitation.
• –Set and progress device parameters — support, speed and guidance force — against each patient's tolerance and goals.
• –Bridge the gap between machine-supported stepping and independent over-ground walking on the ward and at home.
• –Combine gait robotics with manual therapy, strengthening and balance work for a complete rehabilitation programme.

05 / 08

Using the properties of water — buoyancy, warmth and resistance — to let patients move where gravity on land would not yet allow. Aqua therapy unloads painful joints, reduces fear of movement, and gives early-stage and post-operative patients a place to rebuild strength and confidence before progressing back to dry land.

• –Use buoyancy to unload painful or healing joints, enabling earlier active movement than land-based therapy permits.
• –Apply the warmth and hydrostatic pressure of water to ease pain, reduce swelling and build patient confidence.
• –Grade resistance through the water itself to progress strength and endurance without external loading.
• –Use the pool as a stepping-stone, transferring gains achieved in water to independent function on land.

06 / 08

Assessing and rehabilitating patients recovering from road-traffic trauma, spinal cord injury and fractures — long arcs of recovery where the goal is function and independence rather than the level of injury alone. Built on spinal cord injury treatment principles, pairing careful staged loading with the psychological patience these recoveries demand.

• –Rehabilitate patients after road-traffic trauma, spinal cord injury, fractures and major orthopaedic injury.
• –Apply spinal cord injury treatment principles to maximise functional independence at every level of injury.
• –Progress mobility, transfers, wheelchair skills and gait re-education according to each patient's potential.
• –Hold a long, realistic view of recovery — supporting patients psychologically as well as physically through extended rehabilitation.

07 / 08

Mobility-focused physiotherapy and daily-living support for frail and older adults, delivered with compassionate, individualised care. For an older patient, regaining the stairs or the walk to the kitchen is regaining a whole life — so the plan is built around what matters to them, not just what is measurable.

• –Deliver mobility-focused rehabilitation and falls prevention for frail and older adults.
• –Restore activities of daily living — transfers, walking, stairs — with individualised, person-centred goals.
• –Co-ordinated recreational and social programmes that enhanced residents' physical and emotional wellbeing.
• –Work closely with families and care teams to sustain function and dignity beyond the treatment session.

08 / 08

Post-operative and orthopaedic rehabilitation — guiding patients through the weeks after surgery when the outcome is genuinely decided. A replaced or repaired joint is only a beginning; the result depends on graded loading, range restoration and the confidence to move, all progressed safely from the first day after theatre.

• –Begin safe mobilisation and protective rehabilitation from day one post-operatively, in line with surgical protocols.
• –Restore range of movement, strength and gait through graded, criteria-based progression.
• –Educate patients on precautions, pacing and home programmes to protect the surgical result.
• –Coordinate with surgical and nursing teams to align rehabilitation milestones with each patient's recovery.