AHPs Day Special: Meet Vikki Ridley,a Physiotherapist!
To celebrate #AHPsDay, we wanted you to meet some of our lovely staff! Vikki Ridley is a Physiotherapist who works at The Royal London Hospital on Intensive Care within the Neuro Trauma Team ( Respiratory physiotherapy)
My alarm goes off...
At 05:45, I start the day by going for a jog before showering and having breakfast, always a boiled egg (or 2!) on toast with Marmite- Yum! I’m lucky enough to be able to walk to work, so leave the house at 07:25 to start my shift at 08:00.
My job involves...
Assessing, treating and managing patients within the Adult Critical care Unit (ACCU) who have been admitted a following traumatic injury, as a major trauma centre this can vary from road traffic collisions, falls from ladders, spontaneous bleeds on the brain and stabbings.
I got the job...
After studying for three years at The University of the West of England. Over the three years we had multiple placements within different areas of physiotherapy. When I started my degree I wanted to be one of the physio’s that run’s onto a rugby pitch to help the players but after my respiratory placement and Intensive Care I knew this is where I wanted to work.
My typical day...
Starts at 08:00, when myself and often a colleague head up to the unit and work out our patient list for the day and see which patients have moved from the ACCU.
The patient group within ICU can vary greatly, some days we have lots of patients who require rehabilitation, these often taken 2-3 physiotherapists. Today I saw a patient who has been in a RTC and has a multitude of fractures and a head injury. These patients are often unable to sit up by themselves and in lots of pain, with limbs they are unable to put weight through. It is our job to start their rehab, by getting them out of bed. We often see patients who are unable to breathe for themselves requiring ventilation (machine to help with breathing). Here we help patient’s clear phlegm from their chest to make their breathing easier.
The stability of our patients within the ICU environment is ever changing. At times we may need to see patients as an emergency to stop them going into respiratory failure and other times they are too unwell, so sometimes physiotherapy input is not appropriate.
We break for lunch at 13:15 for 45mins, this time allows us to catch up on how we spent our weekends, plans for the evening and most days we do a cross word!
The afternoons are either spent assessing and treating more patients or in meetings, for example Long Term Ward round, where all members of the multidisciplinary team (Drs, Nurses, Psychology, Speech and Language, Dieticians, Occupational Therapists, The After Trauma Team and Physiotherapists) discuss the long stay patients.
The day finishes at 16:30 and I ensure I get out on time, I do have a habit that if I am treating / or a patient becomes unwell I will stay and finish the treatment which sometimes means I’m late leaving but if the patient is improved it’s worth it!
My most memorable moment...
Was when I got called to a trauma patient when I was newly qualified who had been to surgery and they had a complete white out of one lung and being able to carry out an effective treatment of this patient with the help of the nurses and seeing the improvement in both their ventilation and on x-ray will be something I’ll always remember.
The worst part of the job...
Seeing awful things on a daily basis, working on the unit makes you much more aware of the terrible things that can happen to people. Often seeing the patient’s relatives can be upsetting when they see their friend or family member for the first time after being admitted to ICU.
The best part of the job...
Is working alongside some of my best friends and being able to have an impact on the patients and their families’ lives. I always say that fixing someone’s knee is good, but helping someone breath again is amazing!
After work...
I walk home, this gives me time to reflect on my day, if I’ve been lazy and haven’t exercised in the morning I try and do something after work before heading home to cook some dinner, Mac and cheese is an all-time favourite! I normally call a friend or my family to see how their day has been and discuss mine - the highs and lows, before heading to bed at 22:00.